I'm aware that this needs a bit of explaining! Bear with me....
Unlike most other Teaching Assistants and Teachers at my school, I'm out on the playground every day with a particular child. It means that the children in 'my' class come to me with every little problem because I'm usually the adult they're most familiar with out there. My class is brilliant and I love working with those kids...
BUT
There are only so many times you can hear:
"She made a face at me".... "We're playing chase and I caught her but she ran away and she says it doesn't count!"..... "Mildred says I'm not her friend and I'm not invited to her party!"...."She did a backflip on the bars and then I did and now she says I'm copying her!"
before you either start to think that Miss Trunchbull in Matilda had the right idea in building The Chokey, or you come up with a plan fast.
Miss Trunchbull: this is how it's done!
It was close- but I opted for 'come up with a plan fast'. (Sooooo close, though!) Now, you may wonder why I've used 'she' so many times above. Let me be very clear- the boys do fall out and I do have to deal with their mostly football related issues; but at the time it was a group of girls who had me on the verge of releasing my inner snarly- dragon. So- little knowing what I was letting myself in for- I made up a fairytale game. Suddenly we were on a quest to find the Golden Unicorn which would grant us a wish each if we caught up with it (and asked nicely, of course!). I also let out my inner diva and added a few character voices and such into the mix. As you do. Good playtime- lots of fun had. End of story.
Nope. The next day I had a group of girls hopping round me in that excited, hopeful, you-know-we're-gonna-bug-you-forever way that only a little girl can do, saying "Can we play the game...pleeeeeeeease?"
I'll give you a quick summary of that day to this.....
We have ridden unicorns, escaped from dungeons, been chased by trolls, outwitted an evil queen, sailed the silver seas, solved countless riddles and many other things.
My Theatre Arts studies have not been wasted! Someone had to be a troll/ wicked queen/ kindly fairy/ goblin etc. The girls also have an endearing (!) habit of declaring that they've found a special message on a scroll and asking me what it says- then casually mentioning that it's in rhyme. My record is 8 consecutive rhyming clues!
I should get a pay rise!
You'll be very glad to know that we found the unicorn. The queen of the land was so impressed with us that she invited us to a special ball. Would you know it- while we were there, the queen's seven jewels were stolen and we're currently on a quest to track them down. What are the odds, eh?
Much as I love the role playing and the storytelling- there are times when I'm not in an entertaining sort of mood, or have been on the go constantly and I've thought 'Why don't you lot go and play somewhere else today and give me a break?' There are girls that come and go from the game- but there's a small group who are Old Faithfuls and have been there pretty much every step of our journeys of Tolkienesque proportions- and are engaged in the world we've invented, adding their own ideas and events as we go. At those times I can only do one thing......
Suck it up and become the mermaid who's helping them retrieve the next clue from a message in a bottle.
So how does Jesus get to be an Ariel wannabe?
Not long ago I was talking to someone about our playground adventures and they said "You know, that's the thing they'll remember in the future."
It made me think. For some reason playing this game, connects in my mind with:
‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ (Matthew 25:40)
Suck it up and become the mermaid who's helping them retrieve the next clue from a message in a bottle.
So how does Jesus get to be an Ariel wannabe?
Not long ago I was talking to someone about our playground adventures and they said "You know, that's the thing they'll remember in the future."
It made me think. For some reason playing this game, connects in my mind with:
‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ (Matthew 25:40)
It reminds me of our Frontline- living out our faith in the place we are among the people we interact with during our week. On the flipside of that particular coin is this
That's one heck of a concept, isn't it? I've always loved this- but every now and then when I let it sink in, it scares the blazes out of me. Same goes for Jesus' words in Matthew!
I suppose those not really very holy or terribly spiritual things- those 'doing it anyway just because' things....they're being done for Jesus in two ways. For him, because I'm doing those things as if Jesus is the recipient. For him, because I'm doing them on his behalf.
I hope that, say twenty years down the line, there'll be a group of girls (and the two boys who come and go from the game now) who will remember this loony Teaching Assistant who used to do silly voices and lollop around like a troll; whose name they probably won't remember but who really wanted them to see a bit of Jesus there. If they don't recall my name- that's ok I just hope they recall how Jesus was there, in an imperfect form, making things fun....making sure that there was always someone they could go to who would never, ever say "No you can't join in with us", who made sure that every single person who played got to have their ideas heard and acted upon.
I hope that doesn't sound as pretentious as I fear, nor an attempt to go all Uriah Heep and be so very 'umble. If anything good is being given to these children through it all, it's Jesus that's doing it. Heaven knows, I don't have the energy!!!
It's just a silly game. But Jesus does so excel at using silly things.
He also happens to be an awesome pirate!
That's one heck of a concept, isn't it? I've always loved this- but every now and then when I let it sink in, it scares the blazes out of me. Same goes for Jesus' words in Matthew!
I suppose those not really very holy or terribly spiritual things- those 'doing it anyway just because' things....they're being done for Jesus in two ways. For him, because I'm doing those things as if Jesus is the recipient. For him, because I'm doing them on his behalf.
I hope that, say twenty years down the line, there'll be a group of girls (and the two boys who come and go from the game now) who will remember this loony Teaching Assistant who used to do silly voices and lollop around like a troll; whose name they probably won't remember but who really wanted them to see a bit of Jesus there. If they don't recall my name- that's ok I just hope they recall how Jesus was there, in an imperfect form, making things fun....making sure that there was always someone they could go to who would never, ever say "No you can't join in with us", who made sure that every single person who played got to have their ideas heard and acted upon.
I hope that doesn't sound as pretentious as I fear, nor an attempt to go all Uriah Heep and be so very 'umble. If anything good is being given to these children through it all, it's Jesus that's doing it. Heaven knows, I don't have the energy!!!
It's just a silly game. But Jesus does so excel at using silly things.
He also happens to be an awesome pirate!
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