1/20/2010

Mud Glorious Mud!

Today was the first day of school after a rainy day.  Here in San Diego, it POURED rain on Monday (we had Monday off).  It is expected to rain the rest of the week; therefore, we need to take advantage of every opportunity to get outside.

One center, as I was arriving, was going on a walk around the apartment complex in which they are located.  The children were having a blast jumping in puddles!  It was very apparent that this teacher has no problem with the children getting wet and messy…they children were comfortable and uninhibited in their adventures and very matter-of-fact when they got back in their wet clothes and just began calmly changing.

Another center I was at obviously had a bit of a different outlook…I quickly changed that :)

When I went out to the yard, there were exactly 2 of the 45 children in the HUGE sandbox area.  There are typically about 20 children in there on a sunny day.

One little boy was filling his bucket with mud and told me, “I’m making strawberries!”

One little girl found a sinkhole that was in the back of the sandbox.  She was attempting to walk OVER it without walking THROUGH it by walking wide legged over the top.  It’s important to note that this sinkhole was not filled with water, it was simply a big dip in the sand.

They both looked up at me wide-eyed when I first approached but quickly got back to what they were doing when I crouched down next to the sink hole and wondered aloud how that happened.  That got the conversation going!

Eventually, this sink hole became the place where she was “making blueberries” (which I found funny only because of this post over here yesterday)  She was crouched over the edge of it watching, shovel in hand.  Occasionally she would reach out with the shovel and rearrange some of the mud, but I can say that making blueberries mostly involves crouching down and watching.

Her teacher came over and interrupted her play to “go get your jacket”.  Really unnecessary, but I wasn’t going to take the teacher’s authority away from her so I offered, “would you like me to watch over your blueberries while you go get your jacket?”  She nodded.

By the time she got back, there were 4 more girls hanging around, but they were NOT digging in the mud.  They looked at me as I watched her and her blueberries; then they pointed to the boy making strawberries and said, “We can’t play with that!  We can’t play with the water!”

To be fair, it wasn’t water…it was MUD!

I commented, “Sure we can!”

They looked at me warily.  They looked at me in amazement.  They hesitantly said, “No, we aren’t supposed to play with the water.”

I commented, “Sure, he’s making strawberries, she’s making blueberries.  It’s just water.”

Again, the looks of amazement!  The looks of awe!  The slow steps to go get their own buckets and shovels. 

They were a bit hesitant at first as they dug that first shovelful of dirt.  Then, they realized that I really meant what I said…you CAN play with the mud!  It’s okay!

Soon, there were more than the typical 20 children over there.  They were mostly making castles, their words, not mine, and a couple of other children were helping to make blueberries (still mostly involved crouching, watching, and on very rare occasion, rearranging the mud). 

It was a GLORIOUS sight!  I love mud!

What do you do with mud?

No comments: