As the weather has been getting nicer, on the two days each week when I pick the boys up directly after school. we have been spending more time in the playground instead of rushing straight home. Typically, the discussion has gone something like this:
Me: Shall we play outside a bit or head home?
Kid#1: Home!
Kid#2: Play!
When we have let Kid#1 prevail and headed straight home, he proclaims himself to be bored within minutes and is a real rascal by the end of the evening. So I've stopped asking and I just tell them to go and run around. Kid#1 still proclaims that there is nothing to do, but he finds someone to play with after a few minutes, or plays "off the wall" with other boys and the endless stream of tennis balls that he collects in his backpack.
The kids don't really need me around except as a backpack overseer so I also get to watch how the other kids play.
The other day, I noticed a boy crouched on the ground with his hands up to his eyes. Another boy was next to him with his hands over his ears. I was worried that someone was hurt or they had collided and I was about to go over when I noticed that there was also a girl in front of them singing and dancing. Then I realized - they were playing MTV! The one boy was the camera man and the other was the sound guy and the girl was some superstar, playing it up for her virtual audience.
We've come a long way from cops and robbers...
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