I
had a child in my kindergarten class who was having a wonderful time at nap, dancing around the kindergarten, making noises and
generally being such a distraction that no one could rest. I
wasn’t in the classroom during nap time but I would often come down
and see this little girl sitting in the front office with our
secretary, next door to the kindergarten, because she had been so
mischievous. Somehow, I had to find a way to turn this around.
She was learning very well how to be mischievous but nothing at all
about how to rest. So, the next time I came down and saw her in
the office, I picked her up and put her on my lap and told her this
story:
“When
I was growing up, we used to visit our cousin on the farm and the
first thing we did when we arrived on the farm was look for the
cats. We knew that there would be at least one cat that had
kittens. My cousin always knew just where the kittens would be
found and soon we would each be happily cradling a kitten on our
laps. Then we would wrap them up in our sweaters (and here I
wrapped my sweater around the child) and carry them quietly into the
house and play with them in my cousins bedroom. And we had to
keep them very quiet because Aunt Maribelle didn’t allow kittens
in the house at all and if she caught us, she would be angry with us
and she might even make us scrub the kitchen floor. So we
would put the kittens on our laps and pet their tummies till they
fell asleep. Most of the time they would fall asleep but
sometimes a kitten wouldn’t want to sleep and it would meow very
loudly! Then Aunt Maribelle would come and we would have to
take the kittens outside again. And then we’d have to scrub
the kitchen floor.”
Two
weeks later, the girl’s mother came to me and said, “WHO IS THIS
AUNT MARIBELLE??!!” Every day for two weeks, her daughter
would come home and say to her mom, “I was a quiet kitty at nap
today and Aunt Maribelle didn’t even know I was there!”
My
Aunt Maribelle enjoyed the story, too.
No comments:
Post a Comment