Responsibilities Are Tough 

Supplies…

    2 Large clear jars

    A bag or Rice 

    Ping Pong Balls 

And There's No Time For Fussing and Fighting...

Sometimes life can be overwhelming and we just need to understand our priorities. To help visualize that with campers we would do this activity. Sitting in a circle I would explain that the rice represents all the fun stuff, campfire, swimming, hanging out with friends etc. (catering to what I knew about camp and my campers) Then I would talk about how the ping pong balls represent all of the responsibilities we have. The responsibility to be open and friendly, to be accepting and non-judgmental, to take care of ourselves and our friends. Giving tangible examples of what that might look like at camp and asking about what it might look like in their lives. We would about how we need both ingredients to have a successful week at camp. Then place all of the rice in one of the containers, it should fill to about half way. Remember this is the fun outcomes. Then I would have campers come up one at a time and put the ping pong balls in. We would watch as the jar over flows with ping pong balls. IT WON”T ALL FIT! What should we do? Without fail  campers think to add ping pong balls in to the empty container first. After all of the ping pong balls (the responsibilities) are in the container we pour the rice (the fun stuff) over the top. Which sets up perfectly for a great debrief. (Pro Tip: for perfect results measure amounts prior to demonstration! I learned that the hard way…)