Sports Camp Week

This past week the boys spent 3 hours every morning attending a sports camp that our church sponsored. Romania had participated last year, but Holland missed out because of summer school. I really wanted him to be able to do all the fun summer stuff, so we opted out of summer school. He had such a good time! They did a different sport each day, learning the rules and basics of 4 sports. Friday was spent cooling off with a water day.

During the week, the kids worked on memorizing two verses. They would earn a special pin if they could say the verse to a "coach" at the end of the week. Romania had no problem memorizing it. He worked by himself, jumping on the trampoline while he said it. I had worked off and on with Holland during the week but hadn't really sat down and listened to his recitation. Last night, I spent 40 minutes with him while he worked so hard to memorize it. I actually didn't think he would be able to say the whole thing. He kept switching words around, leaving big chunks out. His brain just doesn't hold on to information. I tried doing hand motions with him, but he got irritated and said it distracted him. I tried feeding him one word to get him going. If he made one mistake, he would start all over again. I wanted him to get the flow of saying the whole thing. After 40 minutes, we stopped and said we'd try again in the morning. I felt so bad. He can see that Romania has no problem memorizing. But I have to say, that I am so proud of Romania because he is Holland's biggest cheer-leader. He has never once made his brother feel bad for not doing something that comes easily for him. He cheers Holland on, gives him pats on the back and tells him what a great job he did. If we didn't have that, the tension around here would be horrible.

So this morning, I had the boys recite what they could. Holland was actually able to say most of it before breakfast and just had a few little missteps. Then on the way to sports camp, he said the entire thing with only one word prompt! We all cheered and he had the biggest smile on his face!

He got his pin.