Team building at Sprucelands is about new challenges.

Even Pudge participated in the stations of fun.

Monday night's program was terrific. The counselors and CITs who planned the evening came up with the most clever ideas that basically were team building exercises. Balancing some of our old favorites with new challenges made the evening loads of fun.

Small groups gathered together and then moved from station to station. We find this is a wonderful way for the kids to keep focused on one activity for a short time and then move on to another when someone shouts "change". It helps the evening feel progressive.

Okay. Everyone strike a pose.

Oh no! I think I'm dead in the water!

So one station was the karate game. The kids have played this across the summer and loved it.  They start out in a small circle making karate moves. When they connect with another player, that player is eliminated until there are only two people left. Reality is that they often get into hysterics. This particular group of campers really gets into their games so it is royally fun.

Another station was pterodactyl. This is another old favorite. The kids sit or stand in a circle. They roll their lips over their teeth and say the word pterodactyl without laughing. That of course is the object of the game. But what happens is they start making noises like they're a live pterodactyl and one by one they drop like flies, laughing themselves silly.

You want us to what?

We have to flip this tarp over?

Three new stations were added. The most popular was the exercise involving our blue tarp. An entire team stood on the tarp. Then they were told to flip the tarp over and they were timed. Talk about great fun. They had to communicate with each other about how to coordinate their moves and work together. And if anyone fell off the tarp then they had to start over.

Several groups got so into it that they plotted and planned beforehand or they took breaks to think about a new approach. Then when they thought they were ready they tackled the tarp. One group managed to flip that tarp in 49 seconds. Well, that got the competition going and the next thing we knew another group managed 32 seconds.

Keep at it! 'Cmon! I think we've almost got it!

Never give up! There has to be a way to do this.

I don't care if it's dark.  We're getting it!

What was funny was watching the kids persist. They worked and worked and worked. One team was still going at it after dark. They just couldn't seem to figure out how anyone could do it in 49 seconds. But they tried and tried until they mastered the task and then celebrated their success.

A word game was added to the list of stations. It was very clever but I can't explain it here. To me it seemed complicated. I think I need to play it one of these days and then I'll understand better. The kids grasped it fine. I just don't have their mind anymore. Sad to say. The joys of aging!!!

Talk to me. Talk to me. I'm not sure I can do this much longer!

The final station timed two players from a team at a time. They were on the floor and were given a bucket of books to hold in the air with their feet. The leader started them out with a few books and kept adding them, trying to see how many books the pair could hold in the air. This was another popular station. I'll bet the kids legs are tired today and yet they wouldn't admit that if they were paid.

So that was last night's evening program. It was a much more pleasant evening temperature wise after the horrid storms we had during the day. Closing circle brought us all together before bedtime and then we called it a day. It was a good day all the way around. I know I was ready for bed and the kids didn't complain about lights out.

Comments from you folks are always welcome words. Love hearing from you.