The Lord’s Little Army
I have been moved from the young toddler room (18m-2yr) to the mid-range toddler room (2yr-3yr) at Mother’s Day Out. This is as a result of a teacher leaving to have a baby (among other, drama-drenched reasons, none of which have anything to do with me). And suddenly I’m facing a whirlwind rehearsal schedule (2 weeks) to prepare for the annual MDO Spring Show, put on for parents. And the cast is a particularly spunky, obstinate, motley little crew.
We are having the kids (help) make the invitations to their parents, and (help) make the t-shirts we’ll be wearing. And we are having to learn our material for the show. We’ve settled on the following:
1. ABC’s
2. Count to 10
3. Count to 10 in Spanish
4. Recite ‘God sees the moon’ poem
5. Sing and march to ‘I’m in the Lord’s Army’
6. Sing ‘Row, Row, Row Your Boat’ (with some slight deviations)
Before yesterday, we were only doing #1-4 and #6, which should have lasted all of three minutes. So we added the Lord’s Army song. I was unfamiliar with this song until last night, but when it was played, I thought it would be a great addition to the program. It’s jaunty, with some fun arm movements–I thought the kids could march and salute…
Oh, I was naive.
We practiced today, and the best I can say is that they all really enjoyed the marching. Although they weren’t quite as jaunty as I imagined–just sort of walking in place. The song has a quick-tempo, and I realize that practice is definitely needed, but we have some hard work ahead of us. When I tried to get those little goobers to salute, their hands looked like limp lettuce leaves flopped over on their brows. But they liked the marching…and the moving.
Trying to keep them in line was even more of a challenge. We start out well, but the line leader, for some reason, was always skittish and moving in slow motion, so random kids would start breaking rank, puffing out the line until it was a ever-shifting amoeba of kids. And no matter how I tried to explain the concept of a line, the vast majority of them didn’t get it.
I have quite a task ahead of me, helping to whip this little army into shape. It should be interesting. And the final show will probably be quite hilarious.
04/15/2009 at 1:32 am
LOL! I feel for you, I really do, but your description of them trying to salute totally cracked me up. Best of luck with this!
04/15/2009 at 2:09 am
Left, left, left, right, left.
Good luck General Graves.
04/15/2009 at 4:20 am
“amoeba of kids” is one of the many reasons why you are an amazing writer.
04/15/2009 at 11:19 am
It’s sounds like they’re doing pretty darn good for the age group they’re in. They are quite fun at that age, aren’t they?
04/15/2009 at 4:52 pm
Good luck, Alyssa. I couldn’t help but think of the book, THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER. If you haven’t read it, you should. The kids in it (the Herdman’s?) will have you appreciating your group all the more. Have fun!
04/15/2009 at 9:26 pm
Good luck with your “aboeba of kids”. I love that age group, but they really are hard to get to do the same thing at the same time.
04/15/2009 at 10:08 pm
Too cute! And impressive.
Good luck with the crew.