Tomorrow will be “Water Day” — an eagerly anticipated summer event. Each summer I schedule at least one day with a variety of outdoor water games and activities.
Today we went outside for our usual outdoor play time. The weather forecast predicted a 30% chance of rain but a little rain doesn’t stop us from going outside. We managed to get about 30 minutes of dry playtime before we felt the first few rain drops.
At first none of the children even paused or appeared to even notice the rain. We often stay outside in light rain if it is not too cold. Only a few minutes earlier there had been bits of sunshine peeking through the clouds so we were not expecting the rain to last. We were wrong.
Within minutes the rain became quite heavy. The children began to giggle and looked to see what my reaction was. I shrugged and said “Let’s stay out a bit longer”. They were thrilled. They ran and jumped and laughed and got wet. They were children having fun.
There was no sign of the rain letting up and none of the children had extra clothing so reluctantly we went in. Several hours later when their parents arrived to pick them up every one of the children had the same story to tell. “We had an early water day — we played in the rain and got wet but we’re dry now”. Until tomorrow….
Cheryl's Child Care 