On Friday, the summer program was pretty quiet. We only had 13 kiddos to begin with. So, we slowly sent the staff home. After a mass exodus of kiddos at around 3:15 p.m., I only had four kids left–all girls.
I could tell they were all troubled by the sudden emptiness of the room, and one of them asked, “Miss Winters, why does everyone else get to leave early today?” I explained about the Fourth of July and the long weekend, and I saw four very long, sad faces as they realized they were not one of the lucky ones to get picked up early. So, I decided to make the rest of the day a little bit of crazy fun for them.
When they were finished with their snacks, they all came to the rug to wait for instructions. I called them one-by-one to go change their shoes and get their stuff to go outside. Only, I didn’t call them the regular way. I said, “D, hop on one foot to change into your outdoor shoes and get your stuff. Then when you line up, don’t stand still; make sure you’re always wiggling.”
She looked at me funny, so I started hoping on one foot towards her, she smiled and took off on one foot towards her stuff. Then I looked at the next child and said, “I, skip to change your shoes and get your stuff together to go outside. Then get in line, but don’t stand still; keep wiggling!” She was up and skipping without missing a beat.
The other two waited not-so-patiently for their instructions. “Ok, you two, hop like bunnies to get your stuff!”
“Do we get to wiggle in line too, Miss Winters?” asked little V.
“Of course, my darlings! I don’t want to see anyone standing still!”
So off they all went, giggling the whole way. Soon, I had a line full of wiggly girls waiting for instructions. I had to grab a bunch of stuff to take up too, and as I grabbed it I saw one of the girls had stopped wiggling. “T! Why are you standing still? Keep wiggling, girl!”
“You’re silly, Miss Winters,” I heard.
“Do you know why I’m silly, girls?” I asked kind of quietly.
Four little girls stopped wiggling, and waited to hear my answer. “I’m silly because I was born with the silly gene.”
“What’s the silly gene, Miss Winters?” asked V.
“It’s a very rare gene in someone’s DNA. Not everyone has it. And if you have it, it’s in your big toe on your left foot.”
Four little girls looked at the big to on my left foot. I wiggled it. They giggled.
“And if you have the silly gene, you’re very lucky, because it means you never ever really truly grow up. It means that you are silly your whole life and just have fun with everything you do.”
And with that, the oldest of the four girls looked at me rather suspiciously and said, “Seriously?”
I laughed and said, “No. I made that up. But it’s pretty silly isn’t it?”
Then the younger sister of my suspicious one looked at me and said, “Miss Winters, I think you do have the silly gene. I think it does exist, because you’re the silliest person I’ve ever met in my WHOLE life!”
And we all giggled and headed upstairs to go out to the playground. And suddenly, they didn’t care that they were the only four left…they felt special for it. Because they knew a little secret about Miss Winters. And Miss Winters hopes that she helped them find the silly gene in their big left toes too–and that they keep it forever.
