Well.
That lasted about 182 seconds. Because I just couldn't help myself. Under these circumstances, though, it was WWWAM!
"When We Were At Morrow, a helping parent arrived about 10-15 minutes early to help set up the room and get a run-down of the days activities," I told Greta's teacher when she looked surprised to see me. I could tell she was processing this information and trying to figure out how to un-learn me.
"Oh!" [long pause followed by little laugh] "Well, you need to play with the kids. And probably help them with their craft."
I raised my eyebrows and waited. Surely there had to be some additional instruction, particularly since there are 18 (!) kids in the class. Perhaps guidance on wiping down the tables or grabbing the "go bag" for gym time? Mrs. Lehrer could sense I was waiting for more, so she added, "we have a class meeting with the kids in a bit where I'll go over the plan for the day. Have fun playing with all the kids!"
Huh. I was there mainly to play. And BAM! WWWAM went out the window.
Greta enjoyed my company building a zoo with her friends. We went on a hunt to find the missing white swan. I was told to be the mean hippo. Why was I mean? All the kids explained that I drank all the water belonging to other animals in the zoo. Ahhhhh...they had played this game before!
When I got tired of playing with the mean blue hippo and Greta had moved on to play with pretty ponies, she "shared me" with Gianluca so I could help him get cars unstuck from the garage. Then she "shared me" with Aron and Sadie so we could play with the castles, and I could explain to them what a jester was. Then she "shared me" with Destiny so I could help her finish the art project she had missed when she was absent the day before.
Before I knew it, the bell was ringing (a rotating responsibility, not a helping friend duty) signaling clean up time. Then it was criss-cross-applesauce around Mrs. Lehrer's chair for the class meeting. We started with the pledge of allegiance, reviewed the days of the week, counted on a calendar, talked about the weather, identified the season (still summer, believe it or not!), and reviewed upcoming holidays. I felt like I was actually in school!Then Mrs. Lehrer explained that before free-play would begin again, there were 4 jobs for each child to do.First, paint paper t-shirts that would be similar to the one she was wearing: peace, love, and cupcakes. She explained that those were three of her favorite things, and then she went around the room and the kids all said what their favorite things were: flowers, butterflies, french fries, corn, fire trucks, dogs, etc. The second job was to decorate their September calendar (Rosh Hashanah, first day of autumn, Johnny Appleseed's birthday). The third was to sponge-paint trees and finger paint red apples on it, and the fourth was a fishing for shapes game/puzzle. She divided up the kids and off we went.
I was assigned the paper t-shirt painting, which proved to be lots of fun. Forgot to put smocks on the kids, and realized it didn't matter because four-year-olds can paint without making a huge mess!
The half-hour flew by, and I only took one picture of Greta doing her other painting job because I was just too busy.
The only helping friend responsibility at WNS is passing out snack. Greta declared yesterday that she wanted to take Go-Gurt and carrot sticks. I tried to talk her into bringing crackers as well, but she wouldn't hear it. The kids loved the Go-Gurts, and once I imitated how a rabbit eats a carrot (much to the amusement of Mrs. Lehrer), those were devoured as well.After snack, it was off to the gym for some run-around time. Or rather bike around. The kids can seriously motor on the tricycles! And even better, they can give a ride to a friend (or a friend's mom!)
It was the fastest 2.5 hours I've experienced in a long time (at least since I saw the Half-Blood Prince). I'm already looking forward to WNS HPII next month!
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