She would work extremely hard to participate with the rest of the group, but sometimes she couldn't. When this happened her little face would dull; so I quickly, got into the habit of saying, "Good job! Way to go! Give me high five!" and she would say, "Thanks! You too!"

When her group was on a different element, the group leader had her be a part of the belayer team; I was not with her at this time, but she knew where I was. She looked over to me, and I caught her eye. She gave me a huge smile, an up-nod, which is way cooler than a down-nod, and a thumbs up, which communicated, "Look, at what I'm doing!"

By the end of the day, she had participated, with some help, on various rope course challenges, but because the end of the day was drawing to a close she was not able to climb a high rope element. Her face dulled, again, but she did not pout or complain.

We packed up our equipment, and the sixth graders were lining up to leave, but she went by me, and I said, "Way to go! I saw you do an amazing job belaying! You did a really great job today!"

I had stooped myself down to her eye level, and all of a sudden her little hand came up and patted my chin. "Thanks, you did a good job, too!"

I don't think I have ever been more encouraged by a child.

written by  gwright on December 1, 2010 from Wellsboro, United States
from the travel blog: Wellsboro, Pennsylvania
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