Paint It Red

Elijah's dad drove away in his jeep, leaving Grandma to watch him for the afternoon. It was a gorgeous day. Elijah played quietly in his sandbox, very focused on measuring precise amounts of sand after putting it through a sifter. Grandma sat close by in a lawn chair, pestering him with questions, testing him on his numbers and colors, repeatedly interrupting the flow of his play.

-- Do you like being four? she asked.

No response.

--Do you like being four years old?

--No! Elijah shot back assertively.

--No? Why don't you like being four?

(He walks away towards the driveway)

-- I don't like being four. I'm gonna take your car away, he said.

--You're gonna take my car away? But you're not old enough to drive, protested Grandma in the whiniest voice.

--I'm gonna drive it. And I'm gonna make it black.

--How you gonna do that Elijah? Paint it?

--I'm gonna paint it. Paint it Red.

(He starts to walk away again)

-- Where are you going? Come here Elijah. Look at these berries I have. Now are they blueberries or raspberries?

(He ignores her, keeps walking)

-- I'm tired of you, said Elijah with much sincerity.

-- You're tired of me? Well that's too bad, your stuck with me. I'm watching you. You don't have a choice, said Grandma, obviously taking his comment very personally. Then she shuffled him inside as the sun shot spears of glorious light all over the backyard.

You need to learn to be patient, Chris

Several weeks ago a child in one of the preschool rooms who loves the Beach Boys asked if I could play Surfin' USA during our music session. So I learned the song and we turned it into a fun dramatic play game with everyone pretending to balance on a surfboard, wipe out when a big wave hit, and paddle out on our tummies like real surfers do.

Of course the kindergarteners took this activity to another level when I presented it to their class. They used the large unit blocks as surf boards and acted out more complex scenarios in between my renditions of the song. Then about half the class really wanted to take the game outside, which we did.

We had even better blocks on the playground to use as surf boards and it just made more sense to "surf" outside, even though we are many miles from the ocean here in the landlocked Hoosier state.

They really wanted me to surf too so I joined them while the other half of the class played a baseball game. It took a long time for the "surfing" to get going though, as the children decided they needed to wet down their boards with their water bottles. "Alright, let's get surfing" I said. "Wait!" someone shouted, "we have to take our shoes off. Surfers don't wear shoes." Right. So we took our shoes off. " Now we're ready to go," I said. "Wait! Our boards are dry again (it was a hot day). We need to wet them down more," another child shouted.

This went on for quite some time, with me trying to get the game going and them continuing to make more preparations. I was getting noticeably impatient, especially as I began to hear arguments starting up in the baseball game on the other side of the playground. "We need to get surfing now," I said with a more firm, teacher voice. Then one of the surfer girls
said, "you need to learn to be patient, Chris."

She was absolutely right. Patience might just be the most important virtue for a teacher of young children to cultivate. I realized that all of the setting up for the surfing game was an important game as well, perhaps more important than the actual surfing. And I suppose if any of the children find themselves really surfing in the future, patience will be very important.