A rainy day is not the end of the world. However, when you start working in Early Education, you quickly learn that a raining week can cause havoc. The words wet play send a chill down any teacher's soul, as she comes up with images of children bored out of their minds attempting to destroy everything in sight and get into trouble through all means available.
As we grow in our career we begin to learn tricks. Chop up playtime into different chunks, adding calming activities in the middle of them. Rotate toys often to offer variety. Bring in new items or explore them in a new way. Some teachers use the Netflix approach, which I am not a fan, but I can understand the despair sometimes.
I find it quite interesting, that when we have a day or two of something, such as rain, it's quite ok. Sometimes it's even welcomed. However, as the days turn into weeks, all of a sudden, we all act like those kids. We get restless. We get bored. And we begin to find ways to entertain ourselves, even if they aren't the most helpful or healthy ways to go about it.
The lesson I learned was to bring that same bag of tricks into my own life when I notice the restless-ness coming. Chop up my chores so I don't feel overwhelmed. Cave in and delegate. Call up friends I haven't seen for a season. Help somebody in need. Take a blogging break. Anything that shakes things up and makes you change perspective is game.
