Grab ‘n Go ‘n Keep Hydrated!

What if you were engaged in a dynamic athletic experience that doesn’t involve whistles? Or stop watches? Or time-outs? Or choosing up sides? What if there’s no winning, no losing, and no keeping score? What if there’s only one rule to the game you’re about to play: beyond that out-of-bounds line on the gym floor is The Safety Zone. What if the hardest thing you have to do is to figure out which end of a colorful strip of fabric is the sticky bit of Velcro and which end isn’t?

 

After you and those colorful strips have made friends, and after you’ve expertly attached a six-strip tail to hang from the Velcro band around your wrist, and another six-strip tail gets attached to your Velcroed-banded ankle, what if, when you stand up and move around, you suddenly realize you’re a two-tailed kite-person? Or maybe an exotic bird? What if you then run; you just run, run, run? Or fly, fly, fly? Mostly you’re moving your young body as fast as you can so that no other kite-person can pull off your tails! But what if you’re four or five or six years old and being a fast-moving kite-person is just awesome? And beautiful? And running as fast as you can is Enough? All you want to do?

 

What if you decide to take some extra time, extra care to design your tail? What if your needing to take that extra time doesn’t hold up the game? And you’re not being told to hurry up? (Hint: Your Extended Day Enrichment Program classmates are too delighted to watch their own tails trailing behind them to notice, too engrossed in their own glorious plumage to care!)

 

What if you’re discovering that this game is all about you? And finding your own joy?

 

But what if, mostly because you forgot about that Safety Zone thing, you keep losing your tails? What if that feels hard? Unfair.

 

Answer: You just make new tails. There are plenty of strips. That’s all. (Remember: there’s no winning, no losing, no keeping score. Remember: You can protect yourself.)

 

What if the second hardest thing about this whole dynamic athletic experience is, half-way through, when everyone’s hydrated (and is some cases, cooled off by dousing a little water from their water bottle onto their sweaty faces), it’s time to gear up again; to get back in the game. To run or fly again. (Transitions are hard, especially when you’re maybe four, maybe five or six?)

 

And, finally, what if the wonderful coach/leader/patient guy from Knucklebone Sports shows up again next week with more wonderful Knucklebone Sports equipment to play with and make friends with? Only this time, you and your classmates do something completely different, like a team-building game?

 

I think you know.