Mon 30 Sep 2002
You Can’t Argue With Fun
Posted by Sandi Atherton under Daily Life, germany
1 Comment
Words can NOT EVEN BEGIN to describe the sight I had when I picked Carissa up from kindergarten today! Let me set the stage for you…Kindergartens here have a very large outdoor play area filled with all kinds of fun activities from playhouses, sand pits, swings, and bridges to run across. The kids are encouraged to play outside as much as possible when the weather permits, this even includes days with snow. As a general rule you have to supply a pair of rubber boots and plastic overall pants that stay at the school to be used outdoors and to protect the clothing from
excessive dirt.
It has rained and snowed here for several days and today was the first day of nice sunny weather. I expected to find Carissa outside playing but she was not there. I began looking inside for her and she soon emerged from the bathroom. At first I did not recognize her. I thought they had pulled some hideous mud monster out of the swamp. It seems that she HAD been playing outside in the sand pit which was half filled with water from the rains . When the teacher turned her back, Carissa thought it would be fun to jump into the puddle. No amount of protective gear could have saved her clothing. She was covered head to toe in mud and even told me her boots had water in them. I stood starring at her in complete, speechless shock. Part of me was sorry I was witnessing this sight and the other part of me was sorry I did not have a camera to capture it all. As her teacher and I began pulling the pants and boots off of her, 3inches of water and a pound of sand came from her clothing . The teacher bagged up all the gear for me to take home to wash. When we reached the car I had to finish stripping her down and she rode home in the car completely butt naked! I immediately threw her in the shower and washed her. Nothing but brown water came from her hair. Her once white socks are now tan, which, even after washing, is lighter than the chocolate brown color they were. And I just pray her pretty new pink coat with white fur trim comes clean in the wash.
All I can say is that she must have had fun because she smiled the entire time and was so tired that she wanted to go to bed even before eating lunch.
