For 10 whole days now I have put off opening the monkey bars on our playground. We have been practicing our playground rules (up the stairs, down the slide), getting our energy out by running around and working on coordination on the dome.
It was kind of a last minute decision on my part (yes, we teachers do that sometimes) to keep those enticing monkey bars closed in the beginning. The dome, slides and climbing wall kept the children quite busy over the last two weeks. But as we walked outside today, a very cute little face looked up at me and asked,
“Are the monkey bars going to be open today Ms. Purdin?”
Being that it was a beautiful fall day and the air had that crisp sense of adventure, I decided on the spot to open the monkey bars and said, “YES! Today’s the day!” (Teachers can change their mind just like that too sometimes.)
He raced over the monkey bars where on wobbly, unsure legs he slowly and carefully made his way from one end of the monkey bars to the other. When he got to the other side, he was so proud of himself, it prompted us to ask, “Have you ever tried that before?” To which he replied it was his first time. 🙂
After he went, we had several other children attempt and make it across the monkey bars. It was a steady line at the monkey bars all recess. And the little boy? Well he went on to climb the monkey bars 4 more times.
And that is the magic of monkey bars.
