7/22/08 Workshops Report

The three workshops went very well! There was the typical chaos that comes from settling into a new venue, but apart from that things flowed smoothly. In all, over 50 kids from many different backgrounds took part in the three workshops.

I've been invited back and will be running additional workshops on Monday and Tuesday through August 15th. So there'll be workshops 7/28, 7/29, 8/4, 8/5, 8/11, and 8/12. (The 8/11 one has questionable status, though, as an other event may conflict with it.) This will put at least 6 lessons at the YMCA, not counting the possibility of weekly lessons with them starting in September, so I'll be calling these sessions from now on instead of workshops.

The first session had 27 kids, far more than was expected. Apparently, enrollment for the YMCA summer camp has recently increased, hence the sudden surge. I've been told to expect 35+ 9-14 year olds for next week. With the extra kids, it became necessary to give them more time since passing out materials took longer. So the first session lasted an hour-and-a-half instead of an hour, which will be its length in the future.

The second and third sessions were swapped, so the 5-6 year olds were next for a half hour. There were about 15 of them. I led them through a simple drawing session and had them make their own original comics. That's really all I can do with them, so I won't be having any future sessions with them. They'll instead get an outdoor exercise session, which is probably better for them.

The last session with 7-8 year olds lasted 30 minutes as intended, but was interrupted at the end by snack time, which kept me from collecting all the comics. There were 11 kids in all, so this was a much easier group to lead than the 9-14 year olds. I'll be dealing with them in future half-hour sessions.

I'll have exact numbers, pictures, and videos later.