i woke up a little sad today, even though i had spent the evening drinking free newcastle at shangri-la, watching my friends the naked heroes rocking out. alas, i woke up despondent. why, miss dewey decimal? why were you so sad?well let me tell you a story ... i was having a conversation with my therapist and i was talking about whether or not i want to transfer to a different branch. of course a few months ago i was dying to go to a new branch, but with the new found pleasantness i think i'd like to stay. and i was telling her how much the kids need me, and how they are so tough on new people. they've been burned so much in their lives that they don't trust anyone and it takes months of dedication to prove yourself to them. if i left, what would be the likelihood that anyone would stick around this ragtag bunch long enough to get through to them? the likelihood is low. and then dear blog readers i had an amazing revelation ... i am exactly like these kids.
so this morning i awoke anxious with fear that the tough exterior which i have created to protect myself may have, yet again, inadvertently pushed someone decent away. and after receiving some good advice i decided to take a risk and allow myself to be vulnerable to another person. and so far i think that taking this emotional risk may have paid off.
and once that was settled i had a glorious day ...
first i had my kindergartners in for storytime. i totally love these kids now. they just eat up everything i do. and they know all the words to the songs now, so they all sing along. it's so cute.
then the three books i ordered on games came in and i came up with a variety of games to play for my first ever indoor playground program.
1. human knot - the kids stand around in a circle and grab each others hands (you cannot hold hands with the person on either side of you, and you must hold hands with two different people). then once you're all knotted up and you have to untangle yourself without letting go of anyone's hand.
2. crawl tag - the person who is "it" has to crawl around and catch the other players. the other players walk from one end of the room to the other, each end of the room being base. if the players are tagged, they have to keep their hand on the place where they were tagged. so if someone gets tagged on the ankle they have to hobble around holding their ankle. once you're tagged three times you become it.
3. bowling bridges - the kids break up into two teams and they each stand in a line red rover style with feet apart. the members of the opposite team have to try to bowl a ball through the legs of a member of the opposite team. you are not allowed to move or block the ball. if the ball goes through your legs you're out.
then we played a few rounds of telephone, which was quite amusing when we got to the kid with the stuttering problem. i know that's mean to say, but i couldn't help laughing at the girl who had to relay the message after him.
anyway, the kids had a blast and they were very excited to hear that this is something that we'll be doing weekly.
so in conclusion:
mood - good
job - fulfilling
novel - in progress
gas prices - too high
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3 comments:
Bowling Bridges sound fabulous, thanks for sharing. And I think we have just enough room to do this.
bowling bridges was probably the best one. it was a lot of fun, while also not requiring too much room. also the "danger level" was low, whereas with crawl tag they started getting a little too excited and started running into stuff.
Wow, what a great revelation. Some personal growth for you and the kids! Kudos!
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