Myriad Ways

We flew our kite at school today and the wind took it high into the blue. It shone bright yellow and the green of new spring leaves with a tail the color of fire. the kite spun and danced in the wind.

“Higher! Make it go higher!” the girls yelled. “let out all the string!”

We did. The kite danced so high it looked like a tiny bright swallow swooping and diving and recovering, but one dive brought it out of the wind and sunk into the houses and trees across the road. We followed the string and found it on a roof.

The girls were full of climbing recovery strategies which I vetoed. So we went back and unhooked the string from all the trees and other obstacles. But, by the end of outside time the kite was still on the roof.

Despite the loss of a kite the children were enthusiastic to get on with the rest of our activities. We drew and used our sled on the ramp and had a lively lunch full of discussion about the adventure of the kite, and what we would do the rest of the day (most of the plans were around the goats and garden). And so we moved on. The kite, it seems, had served its purpose, flying lovely in the sky and providing an interesting problem that was ok to let go of. I think a lot of people are trying to get their kites off of roofs instead of maybe keeping a good memory, making a good try at recovery, and moving on to the next part of life that may or may not involve loud, smelly animals and flowers.

After a long afternoon of goats, flowers, and water, We sat on the carpet reading books. The three year old looked at me and said, “That kite was really high!” her face opening into a great grin. “And then it fell so far. That was ok, too.”

“Yeah!” said one of the 4 year olds. “Cause then we had an aventure of finding it and getting the string.”

I pointed out that we got to practice crossing the street safely several times.

“But the greatest thing was when it went up and up,” another girl chimed in.

“It was the best kite today,” The three year old finished off the thought.

Then the talk drifted to some silliness about bathrooms and burping. It is hard to keep the philosophy going in a preschool room. It almost always comes back to bodily functions or silly noises. I am just happy to be working with a group of kids that are able to move along to the next adventure and leave the kite problem to the wind.