Disrespectful

Today was a more difficult day with the girls. They were very hyper and had trouble sitting still and listening. Even after giving them several warnings and taking their stars away they were still being disrespectful. It was very hard to get through our activities. We talked about differences in people all over the world, including such things as religion and wealth. We also had the girls write about things that brought back memories from their childhood. This was a fun activity and the best part of the day. But by the end the girls had already lost all their stars and we were not able to draw for the doorprize. We had the girls write down what they could do to be more respectful. Hopefully they will remember these things in the future.

Different

I thought today was a great day with the girls. Our first goal was loving ourselves, and today we started our next goal: learning to accept others and be respectful of differences. First, we had the girls draw pictures of what it means to them to be different. There was a wide variety of ideas that they had, from hair length to una-brows. Then, we had the girls write down words that described who they were. Then, we had them come up with stereotypes having to do with their words. The girls were very respectful of each other, but it was kind of hard for them to understand exactly what stereotypes were so we might need to go over this a little more in the future.

Relationships

Our topic today was relationships. I thought this was very important because everyone develops many different kinds of relationships throughout their lifetimes. It was great to see all the things that the girls came up with that are important in relationships. We also talked about the things that make a good friend. They girls acted out scenes and gave examples of healthy and unhealthy relationships. They were very excited about this and did this very well. We also learned how to communicate with “I” messages to tell each other how we feel in tough situations. While the girls did very well in the activities, they were also very hyper and it was hard to get their attention at times. Being respectful and listening is something the girls still need to work harder on. They take their stars very seriously though so once we started taking them away they began to behave better.