Our church/school playground and parking lot have been invaded this year–by teeny, tiny frogs…
I don’t know how the kids keep finding them, they’re so darn small! And they really have amazing blending ability. Their camo is awesome! But they hop really big.
We’ve got bright green tree frogs that come up on the side of our house sometimes. And we’ve got big, ugly brown toads that hop around the garden and garage, especially on damp evenings. (The cats like to eat them and leave their legs and their insides on the garage floor–drives Mr. Fix-It crazy!)
But we probably would never even notice something this small at our house.
School pick up is the most difficult part of my day. I leave work and hustle over to get them and I’m tired and I’ve missed them and I’m so excited to see them, but they are soooo wound up when I walk through the door.
They act out so much when I walk through that door. Running, yelling, galloping around shooting people with Lego guns…it’s not new and it has nothing to do with school. They’re just excited.
I try so hard to stay calm, but corralling them can get a little frustrating when you’ve already worked all day and only have chores, dishes, dinner, baths, homework, and bed to look forward to the rest of the evening. I tried to explain a hundred times that if they would just behave there will be time for fun later. But they just totally live in the moment.
This little frog made a huge impact on our evening.
He caught their interest in something other than running around(and ignoring me) and made them focus on something besides themselves. I took a deep breath and encouraged them to watch him while I got my camera. And eventually we all got loaded up in good order and headed home with a fun story to tell Daddy about our day.
I haven’t been very intentional about strategies for order in our evening pick up. I’m not a fan of eating in the car because it makes a mess, but maybe I should have their snack with me for the ride home. (Fruit snacks seem to be a big motivator around here.)
I’ve also been haphazardly trying to motivate them with a few extra minutes on the playground, but they usually break 6,000 rules just getting from the daycare room to the door and I hate to reward that. (You know, running, jumping, yelling, throwing your backpack down the hall, dragging your backpack along the wall, pushing each other, chasing each other, tackling each other, throwing your backpacks at each other, covering your head with your jacket and slamming into each other…just everyday boy stuff.)
Do you have any suggestions?
