For weeks now my oldest has been staying up until around 1 or 2 in the morning to play video games, and then he sleeps until past 10am. On Friday I warned him that with camp coming up, he had to change his sleeping schedule.
I shouldn't have worried, because he happily set his alarm on Sunday for a "test run" and then did it "for real" this morning since he was so eager to go to video game design camp. He was annoyed when his little brother dilly-dallied with the whole socks-and-shoes routine because he feared he'd be late. (In fact, he voluntarily scooped up his brother's backpack to put it in the van so we'd be all set while his brother focused on combing his hair just so.)
"I am just so excited!" he told me. This is new. Typically, this son can be excited about something but is usually pretty frightened of new things, so the fear shows through more than the happy anticipation. But this time, he told me all about the things he hoped to learn. Before we left, he viewed the camp director's "welcome video" again. He had watched it a few months ago, but wanted to reacquaint himself with the "secret word."
Armed with this "secret word" knowledge (with it scribbled phonetically on the sheet of paper alongside the driving directions) we set out.
First we had to drop off the younger brother. "Take him!" my oldest encouraged the counselors, "We can't be late to my camp!" When the narrow road to the freeway was packed with cars, he remarked, "This really is like ants marching around. I hope we get there on time!" On the freeway he frowned at construction signs, but was happy to see traffic flowing smoothly.
Alas, just as I told him to read me the directions to camp, we both saw our intended exit was closed.
CLOSED!?
For the first time that morning, my son got truly worried, but thankfully he didn't panic. "Just go to the next exit," he told me.
Of course as luck would have it, my phone navigation system freaked out and couldn't find our current location. But after fiddling around a bit, we were again on our way!
My son got very chatty about how glad he was that we figured it out. "We're not going to be late!" he sighed happily.
Indeed, we were exactly on time. Initially he was a bit panicked - "I see a lot of high school girls!" - but I assured him that there were many counselors for the many different "majors" and "minors" so it was unlikely that he'd be with exclusively young women. (And that even if he was, he'd still have a good time.)
When he saw the (male) camp director, he pronounced the "secret word" with a flourish, literally moving his arms as if to say "ta-dah!" As a reward, he got to learn the "secret handshake." What a treat!
As he checked into his video game design major, he smiled brightly, even when the counselor announced loudly, "Oh, they got your gender wrong! You're not a boy, you're a girl!" as he crossed out 'male' in his profile.
"Oh no, he just has long hair," I told the counselor, "He's a boy!" Thankfully my son just laughed, and it wasn't a big deal.
What IS a big deal is how excited he is for his first day of camp. He jumped right in with no hesitation, which is amazing for his usually resistant personality type. He has been dreaming about this for a long time, and he's so glad the day has finally come.
I can't wait to hear all about it!
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Disclaimer: I researched and paid for Galileo Summer Quest with my own money. Then by complete wonderful random chance, Galileo Learning contacted me to see if I'd be interested in reviewing their camps. As such, both my kids attended Camp Galileo for an additional week on Galileo's dime in exchange for my posts.
I've written about our Galileo Adventures here:
In Search of Tech Camp
The First Morning of Camp
The Report from Galileo Summer Quest
A Detective in Paris
Camp G is for you and me!
We're gonna miss you Camp G! Until next year...
