Plugging in again for Spring

 

I love this early lesson on visualization and "plugging in" to Girls on the Run message.  I sometimes wonder if it might be a little early in the season to ask for such buy-in even in elementary school aged kids. But given the short amount of time we have together each semester, I reckon you just need to get right down to business (and fun!)  However, it's still a pretty tall task to ask even the most serious of kids to concentrate without some giggles and wiggles.  And given the fact that we've got more than our share of veteran Girls in our group - and a few who've chosen to spend a few mornings of their very last semester in elementary school here with me, I knew I needed to freshen up this lesson for them.  Nothing gets your attention like sidewalk chalk, glitter confetti and bubbles!  Save for maybe the trash from my kitchen, so I brought that, too.

Hosting the start of Thursday's lesson in the multipurpose room, with its in-and-out activity, before school drop-offs and other distractions made the perfect backdrop for the lesson on tuning out the barrage of messages we hear that tell us we're not good enough, smart enough, fast enough, rich enough, or skinny enough.  It was a struggle at times, just like in real life, for the Girls to stay tuned to the positive and reinforcing message in our lesson: tune out all the garbage - literally and figuratively - and tune into the voices showering you with encouraging words, and in this case, glitter confetti and bubbles, too!  In think they got the message.

Our theme of encouraging words and positive messages continued out on the track where we re-introduced ourselves to one another via high five line in vintage Chicago Bulls-style high.  As we turned laps, we poured encouraging words into the Girls on the Run cord of our friend traced alongside the track.  Oh, and there was more glitter confetti.  Sorry about that, if you're still trying to pluck that out of someone's hair.

Remind your Girl that she's got a superfan in you, too.  Let your words of encouragement be the glitter confetti that rains on down and outshines the rest of the garbage she hears that tries to convince her otherwise. The more you say it, the more she's likely to hear it!