Archive for the 'The Gurl House' Category

November 15, 2009 | Life in General,The 4-1-1 on Me,The Gurl House

This week at The Gurl House: Patiques – Part One

This week was Emily’s turn and this activity was something she’d done at a MAC Camp this summer. You first draw your design on a piece of paper, then transfer that design onto a pillowcase. You then trace the design with washable glue, let it dry and paint over the dried glue. Once the paint dries, you wash off the glue and the design remains. Today was part one: drawing the image, transferring it to the pillowcase and tracing over the image with glue.

We only had 3 girls this time and I think only one of them got to the gluing phase. LOL. It was a little bit of a challenge to come up with something and some scratch paper had to be used. I think they liked this project because a pillowcase is something they can take with them. Anywhere. And whatever image they create means something to them and it always will. Despite the fact that these girls are away from their families, they’re always thinking about them and it shows in the finished activities we do each week. They either make something for a family member or it’s incorporated into the activity. As is the case with today’s two part project.

But the girls have made friends here at The Gurl House, too, and that’s evident every week. The girls usually ask each other, “Can you draw this for me? You’re so much better at it than I am?” or “Can you make me one that looks like this?” More often than not, they make stuff for each other automatically, no requests. I think they show great trust in each other and I’m sure that’s really important at this point in their lives.

It’ll be interesting to see how the pillowcases come out next week.

November 8, 2009 | Life in General,The 4-1-1 on Me,The Gurl House

This week at The Gurl House: The Answer to Sculpting

I have a deck of conversational cards called Go Ask Anyone cards. They’re more for conversation starters at parties but they came in handy this time. Em and I had only 3 girls today and each girl had to pull a card, but they couldn’t show anyone their card. Their answer to the question had to be sculpted with the modeling magic clay provided. If the question was too hard, they were allowed to pick one additional card. At the end, everyone went around, read their question and explained their answer.

We had fun questions like “If you had to be a character on a t.v. show, whom would you be?” to serious, “Which three people would you combine for an ideal mate? For what qualities?” A couple of the girls had to choose another card, but I could tell that, no matter what question they ended up with, it was a difficult task. They had to take a moment to figure out how they were going to create their answer. I like that phrase:

Create their answer

Not think. Not write. Create. Who ever “creates” an answer? It doesn’t seem possible, but the girls did it and the results were amazing. This was a bit of a challenge for them. This wasn’t something they could just write down and make pretty with glitter and markers. And it wasn’t something they could cut and paste from a magazine. For once, they didn’t just jump right in and get to it. It was funny, too, to watch their thinking process. They would knead the clay, staring intently at their card, as if molding it, playing with it, would make the idea come to life. You could actually see them working out how they were going to do it. LOL. There were a few stops and starts, and a little frustration with the clay (too much water. Oops!), but all in all I think they liked the challenge.

November 1, 2009 | Life in General,The 4-1-1 on Me,The Gurl House

No session this week at The Gurl House.

October 25, 2009 | Life in General,The 4-1-1 on Me,The Gurl House

This week at The Gurl House: MARBLE PAPER (project of the month)

Using tin pans, we coated the bottom with shaving cream, mixed in some paint, and pressed a sheet of construction paper across the whole mess (and it was definitely a mess). Once you scrape off the shaving cream right away, it’s supposed to leave a marble effect on the paper.

We forgot to scrape off the shaving cream. LOL.

We thought we were supposed to let the shaving cream dry. But that’s okay. We were putting our own spin on the instructions. Emily chose fall color paints to work with (brown, yellow, blue, green, red, etc) so a lot of the finished products looked like beautiful abstract paintings of the ocean. The one I made looked like someone bled all over it.

We were informed the night before that we would only have 3 girls today. But we had 4. While it was our most messiest project to date, we had a lot of fun. Once the initial part of the activity was done, the girls came up with different variations: a hand print (like the kind you make when you’re a kid), name plate, etc. The part they liked best was the shaving cream (of course). The one thing I’ve noticed about the girls in our group is that they’re always thinking about others: family members, friends, other girls in the house, etc. In activities we do, there’s a lot of “Hey, can you make this for…?” or “I’m making this for my little brother/sister/Mom.” It’s never really all about them. The part they liked least was the messiness. But it was still fun, or else they wouldn’t have been chasing each other around the table with goopy hands. LOL.

October 17, 2009 | Life in General,The 4-1-1 on Me,The Gurl House

This week at The Gurl House: MEMORY BOXES

We had 6 girls today and we painted cigar boxes. Black seemed to be the color of choice. I guess it was a good thing I’d brought a big bottle of that stuff. One of the girls had made hers into a First Aid box. Alarm bells went off in my head when she said that. Why would she need a First Aid box? Should I say something to the House Mother? Should I ask the girl what’s been going on? These questions raced through my mind within a matter of seconds. Turns out my worry was for nothing. One of our “regulars” is leaving, but I’m glad she was able to paint a box today because now she has something to take with her. I’m a little bummed.

I’ve been at The Gurl House for 5 weeks now and I seem to have forgotten that it’s a group home. These girls are here for a reason and it’s not the right one. These girls need to be with families. If not their own, then with a better one.

I told the regular that was leaving to take care of herself, do good in school and keep her head up. I’ll miss her. She’s been with us since the beginning. It makes me wonder how many other regulars we’ll lose between now and the end of the program.