Just a regular morning

E, M and J are sisters who attend our school. J, the youngest, obviously adores her older sisters and they are all obviously very close. This year M moved up to join E in the elementary class and it's obvious that J misses having her in the Children's House all day. She's grown used to it as the year has gone on, but still tries to spend as much time with her older sisters as possible during before and after school care.

This morning E was busy knitting on the couch, and J was watching her like most mornings. She was happy just to sit next to her sister, holding the ball of yarn and watching E knit. J's friends weren't quite as keen on this idea. They wanted her to come and play with them, they wanted her to color by them; but J just said "No, I want to watch my sissy!"

Did they just accept this answer and go off to amuse themselves? Of course not! They decided that they would all watch E as well. Now E's a pretty easy going and quiet girl, and even though I could tell she was enjoying the attention she's not really one to take advantage of it and act all silly or anything.

This wasn't quite true for the children watching her. The little pack got louder and more rambunctious as they jostled around in the small space. First they discussed whether it was 'knitten' or 'knitting'. The loudest voice was winning until I broke in with a simple "E is knitting." and quieted the kindergarten who was convinced the word was 'knitten'.

There was some bouncing up and down as they shifted from standing to squirming on to the couch, to jumping up again. J accidentally dropped the yarn ball. It bounced around, rolling farther and farther away despite the many eager hands trying to stop it. Next thing I know, 4 different little girls are holding a section of yarn, waving it up and down and giggling hysterically. The line got longer and longer, while the ball got smaller and smaller.

I stepped in again, reminding them not to tangle up E's yarn, and suggesting they find something else to do. They happily complied, one of the older ones staying behind to wind up the fallen yarn a bit. Throughout this whole thing E had just kept sitting there quietly, knitting away. When it was clean-up time she silently rolled up the rest of the yarn the younger girls had been playing with, gathered all he knitting supplies and walked off to class. Just another regular morning in a mixed age school.