The Divine Miss M

Just when I think I've got this pre-school thing down okay, a day like yesterday happens to put me right back in my place. Let me start off by saying that I really do love each and every one of the ten little kiddos in our class. They each have their unique personalities. Some are sweet, some are compliant, some are daring and some, like Miss M, are what I would call very free spirited. She marches to her own drum to the extent that I don't think she can even hear anyone else's drum. This is what happened yesterday at play time. These are the facts and they cannot be disputed.

Due to the enormous amount of rainfall we had yesterday, we were not able to go outside to play at recess. When the weather is bad, we have a big gym that we can take the kids to and they can run around, play with balls and parachutes and the like. Unfortunately, we have to share the gym with other classes so it gets kind of crazy sometimes. We are constantly doing head counts to make sure no one has wandered off.

Yesterday, Leslie and I had nine heads to be responsible for. During every head count of our thirty minute gym time we came up with nine heads. Right up until it was time to go back to our classroom. We counted and only came up with eight heads. While Leslie herded the other kids to keep them from getting away, I did a loop around the gym looking for Miss M whose head was not accounted for. I could not find her which made me sick at my stomach. We knew she had to be close by because there is really no way a child could get out of the gym without someone seeing them. I looked in the girl's bathroom and she wasn't in there. About one minute later, one of the other teacher's yelled across the gym that she had found them.

It seems that our Miss M and a girl from another class had gone into the other restroom. I ran across the gym and looked in the restroom and just stared in shock, amazement, anger, and I have to admit, a little bit of hilarity at these two little girls. They were both completely naked, wet and shivering. They had decided to take a shower together during play time. They also found a plunger and went to work on the toilet. Apparently it needed some fixing. This all happened in the span of about five minutes. I could not believe it. Looks like we'll have to start tethering the children together for playtime which could make for some interesting stories later.