THE DRAGONS ARE COMING!!!-Be calm....

My older sister had a hair appointment this afternoon and I agreed to watch her kids. I decided that it would be a perfect opportunity to have my younger sister's oldest over to play with them. They all love eachother and love to play together, so I figured if they were playing with eachother they would be keeping each other occupied and they would have an awesome afternoon.

We started our afternoon practicing a song that my older sister's kids are singing for church this Sunday. We probably worked on that for 20-30 minutes, but I could tell I was losing them. My theory is (and I believe many pedagogues would agree with me) there comes a point when you practice where you will make things worse as opposed to better-especially if you can't focus- so I opted to let them try one more time and be done so that wouldn't happen.

Raylee (my little sister's oldest) got here as we were finishing up. We sang it one more time for her benefit because she was feeling left out (and at the age of 4, there is nothing worse in the world than being left out!)

Next, we had a story time. I read a few Shel Silverstein poems from "Where the Sidewalk Ends" and then I gave them giant sheets of paper to draw a picture based on their favorite poems. We ended up with some interesting stories and ideas about the poems, but when the kids involved are ages 9, 7, 5, and 4 that is to be expected. They got a kick out of the poem "sick" and the "Ickle Me Pickle Me Tickle Me Too". I think the best part of drawing the pictures (aside from the stories the kids told) was a time when Macee got frustrated and wanted to stop drawing. Raylee starting chanting "Don't give up!" over and over- Austin and Addie joined her- they chanted for a good two minutes, until it got really loud and we had to ask them to stop...but it was priceless.

After we finished sharing pictures, grandma got them all a snack and Austin sat with grandma at the table talking and drawing some more while Macee, Addie, and Raylee all decided to start playing "movie". It was funny to listen to Macee direct and tell the younger girls what to say...I must have heard the line "THE DRAGONS ARE COMING- BE CALM" about a million times, with a million different voices and voice inflections until Macee thought it was just right. I then witnessed the three of them walking out of the hallway all carrying purses and walking "like princesses"...they were swinging their hips and their wrists and hands were placed delicately in the air...I had to giggle a bit.

They decided they needed more room to play, so they went outside. And this is how I found them.




They said they were looking at the cloud people and trying to learn their language....


I love kids-anything is possible- its a beautiful thing.

Hugs and loves until next time darlings!