Reading Rocks has been going really well all summer. In fact, its been going so much better than we ever thought it would! We have over 50 kids on the roster and haven't had any less than 20 kids come on a given day. Sometimes we have close to 30!
One of the best parts about Reading Rocks is that Carisa and I do it together. When I first came on staff with Cornerstone the plan was for me and Carisa to work together on almost everything. Because of many different things it hasn't really worked out that way. The result is not exactly what I expected, but its still great! Nonetheless, I always enjoy the things that Carisa and I do get to do together. I learn so much from her and really enjoy working with her. We work really well together.
I was pretty nervous about this week, though, because Carisa is out of town. In fact, she will be out of town for 2 weeks, which means I am running Reading Rocks alone. Well, not really alone...we actually have a lot of help from the teens...but I'm always nervous about running things without Carisa around.
Thankfully, I am very happy to report that Reading Rocks has been wonderful this week!!! Kids area earning points like crazy and I am amazed at how much they love the program and are growing in their reading skills. Wednesday was my favorite day so far.
On Wednesdays we do special reading events at the church instead of the normal read and earn points. This week we did a "Pastor Reading Time" and it was AWESOME!! Pastor Bill read the kids some of his favorite poems and they loved them. He did funny voices and was very animated, and wonderful. The teens really enjoyed his story time as well! He even kept little A's attention the entire time, which I don't think has ever been done before! :) Pastor Andy read an amazing book with great parallels to Christ and the kids really enjoyed figuring out what each character in the story represented. It was so great to watch the light bulbs go off as they realized that they were like some of the characters in the story and that God had a special message for them. It was GREAT!!!
The only really hard part has been all the questions I am getting from kids about after-school. Reading Rocks reminds them of after-school and they keep asking when it will start up again. I don't have the heart yet to explain to them that it isn't going to happen so I just keep telling them we will have to just wait and see what happens.
Another plus is that for the first time in 3 years of the program, Bonita and Linda are fully participating. In the past they have come once or twice but that's it. Now Bonita is on contention to be the top points earner and Linda isn't far behind (she would be even closer to Bonita if she didn't sit with M every day...they tend to distract each other). :)
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