"I am so upset!" S stomped over to a chair and began taking off her boots. We'd just finished getting dressed to go outdoors and the sky opened up like clockwork for its usual 12:45 dumping of heavy rain. We'd gone on a walk earlier, just in case our regular time outdoors was rained out, but for S it wasn't enough. She's a hale and hearty kid who would gladly play outside in any weather, and this was a disappointment.
Perhaps a letter to the rain, just venting, might be appropriate.After getting the children settled in to work some playdough, I got out a blank card, drew an umbrella on the front, and asked the children what they would like to tell the rain.
"Dear Rain," began S, "Please don't do this again, rain. We don't need you. We can't be ever."
V seconded the appeal. "Rain stop. I want to play outside and S wants to play outside so S can play."
J was to the point. "Dear Rain, Don't pour again."
This launched into a discussion about how the rain would get the letter. S suggested putting the card into a mailbox. J countered that "the mailbox is at the cafe" (he was referring to our neighborhood mailbox). S then decided that "The mailbox for the rain is up in a tree". After this, the talk moved onto their playdough creations, namely lots of lollipops, ravioli and teddy bears.
As mentioned before, we have had some out-of-order days this week, taking our time outside earlier than usual. On Tuesday afternoon we were soaked, and so Wednesday found us outside right after Gathering, while we still had a chance for sun and dry weather. The S and V made numerous sandcastles; T, S and V spent a lot of time jumping off the rounds. All the children played with the both the watering cans and the big washtub of water. The plum tree house was visited and played around. I've also noticed a secret stash of chalk and colored rocks down at the base of a grapevine. And the driftwood 'snowboard' is in demand lately. It's lovely to see the children adopting the outdoors area as their own space, assigning meaning to some objects and creating little worlds of their own.
We played several games this week at our Gathering times. Some games focused on how to ask another person for something they have, while other games required patience through taking turns. Staying in the activity while taking turns is a challenge for young children and some days we don't all have the patience for it. These activities also help me reexamine where the group is in this season and what the children are needing from me. At present, we are in time of actively revisiting skills around sharing toys and taking turns. Our activities become a little smaller so that I can be very present with them. Like any group, we have weeks that seem very smooth and others that challenge, and knowing how the group will be best served is of utmost importance to me. Being patient for things when you are three years old can be very, very hard!
Some other peeks into our week:
Imaginative play is alive and well! After working on open-ended collages, the children each took long lengths of crepe paper streamers and 'flew' them around the room. "This can be a big kite!" said S, while T used his as a blindfold, covering his eyes. Later, T brought me the lacing tree, with just a string hanging off it; the round end of the string was a "microphone" and I was instructed to sing ABC's while he played the tree "guitar".
On Thursday we tied strings to our cars to be used as pull-toys. The children decided then that the cars were dogs and spent quite a bit of time walking their dogs and tying them up before bathroom and snack breaks. These dogs were very well cared for!
On the art front: we revisited the texture cards to make rubbings; made some mail for each other with paper bird and umbrella shapes decorated with markers and stickers; made more watercolor-eyedropper 'drippies' pictures and spent a lot of time working playdough. T-(working, making depressions in a big piece of the dough and placing little balls into them, then pushing them flat.) "It's a box. It goes open, see, and closes like that." then later, "It's a goalie and it goes like this". (shoots a dough ball a few inches) "You flick it." J makes worms and ravioli while S makes a pancake. The children are experimenting with making depressions with the ends of tools and rolling pins.
S cooks in the restaurant. T and V are babies. (We have also added a baby basket to our housekeeping area, so we'll see what becomes of this.)
Lots of train and truck play this week. The children have discovered that the train can hook up the truck trailers too, and are still enjoying the cargo of 'gems' and nuts. S likes to be in charge of the cargo distribution and T built a station.
Music, music, music: we got out the drums and shakers and sang several of our favorites, including Twinkle Twinkle Motorcar, the ABCs and our Hello song. At one point, the everyone again had long-block guitars before the band called it a day.
Hopefully the sunshine will return next week. We have a new cooperative game to try and so much more fun to be had. Have a great weekend!
