Today was the last day of Kid's Korner, the after school kid's tutoring program I help out at. We had a christmas party where we just gave the kid's free time to do what they wanted. They could play games in the gym, decorate cookies, play educational games on the computers, color different pictures. It was basically just a relaxed atmosphere for kid's to be kid's for a couple hours.

In an earlier entry I introduced Daniel, one of the kid's I spend a lot of time with. Over the course of the semester, he has grown rather attached to me. Each time we break for homework time, he is insistant that I be the one to help him. It has also, as he understands it, given him the license to act up more because he believes he can get away with it. The more trusting he becomes, the more he believes he can push the boundaries of what he is able to get away with. That or he has just become more boisterous in general.

Today was a particularly interesting situation to deal with. His latest way of dealing with problems is to run from them. He will take off in the nearest direction and force someone to chase him. Today, even with the cold weather, he had the same strategy. I saw him running out the door with another helper following and knew what was going on so went outside after him. Perhaps I was just playing into his game, but couldn't see any other way out of it. He is usually shouting, running and screaming, or otherwise a fairly loud child, but when angry he becomes very silent. He would run under a porch and just sit, knowing I was too tall to effectively come after him. "Daniel, what is wrong?" No answer. "Daniel, do you want to come back inside?" No response. At one point I was able to chase him down and grab hold of him to stop him running away and he screamed, "I hate church, I never want to go back." "Why, Daniel? Did one of the other kids say something mean?" Nothing. This cat and mouse routine continued for about 15 minutes until he finally gave up and I just took his hand and walked him back to the church and he returned to his normal, loud, jovial self. He increasingly has these fits, but they never last more than a few minutes and they end as abruptly as they begin. It seems to me that his anger isn't really at the program, my best guess would be one of the other kids said or did something to upset him as that has been the case in the past, but their consistent nature seems odd. It is something I can't explain.