T.T.: Balloons

Last week on a rainy, nasty day, I was compelled to have recess indoors while I was at work. One of my duties at school is recess monitor, and I really don't like indoor recesses. The kids seem to become completely hysterical when they're racing around a gym instead of on the playground.  

However, when I brought the youngest class into the gym for their recess first, we discovered that the balloon decorations from the volleyball game the night before had been left up. And the teacher who did the decorating said we were free to take them down to play with them. In fact, she said she would be delighted if we would, because then she wouldn't have to do it.

So then the kids got to run around hysterically with balloons at every recess that day, which was great.

Balloons are the perfect indoor plaything, which is an important thing to remember as most of the world approaches the seasons in which indoor play is more frequent. Balloons are cheap. They are light. No one can get hurt by them or break things (at least, not easily). Multiple children can play with one balloon.

The only rule I have in my house is that they can't be played with in the kitchen, because I don't want any filthy balloons near food, and also they will pop if they land on something hot.

After that day of indoor recesses, the older classes had the most fun of all: They got to pop the balloons for me with pencils. Then they picked up the pieces and threw them away. In this way, everyone was happy. The kids got to play with balloons at every recess; I didn't have to haul around equipment or break up disagreements over basketball games; and the balloons were cleaned up. Yay.

Random photo of our road:

No balloons necessary on a day like this.