Nap time then once again and I'm bouncin' round the room

Today was my school's annual community service day. The school is pretty serious about the importance and value of community service--our freshmen learn about it, and before they graduate our seniors have to have done a certain amount of it. On top of that, each year we take an entire day off from classes and devote it to helping others. Habitat For Humanity, Salvation Army, the Animal Rescue League, and many, many other places. Last year, I went to Urban Edge Farm, which is a combination CSA, model farm,  education center, and charity. I had a good time there with kids planting  things, getting ground ready for planting, and seeing the operation they have there. I would have happily gone back, but I was assigned to a different project this year. This year, I went to a day care center.

I spent the day playing with 5-year-olds.

Does it get any better than that? They're so much fun, and at the end of the day you hand them back to someone else to be responsible for them! I read stories to kids who were eager listeners. I played with Legos, I let little girls "cook" me plastic meals, I helped kids print words with rubber stamps and ink pads, and I observed them in their day, learning the days of the week, the months of the year, and the letters of the alphabet, watched them eat rice and green beans along with their breaded chicken bits. They were such sweethearts, so enthusiastic and energetic. 

I only barely restrained myself from killing two birds with one stone and just reading The Great Gatsby to them, but instead I stuck to Curious George and Blue's Clues. 

One thing I noted though: nap time. Kids this age don't really seem to need it or want it. When I was in kindergarten, I rarely fell asleep during nap time. The closest I came was pretending to be a robot and powering down for nap time. My parents would sometimes foist a nap off on me too, but I almost never slept. Kids that age are near-boundless in their energy. Probably their parents would appreciate it if they were returned to them a bit more tired, not less.

My high school students, on the other hand, could really appreciate nap time. I wouldn't mind partaking of nap time myself. I guess it's true, youth is wasted on the young--they're forced to do things that the rest of us only day-dream about doing.  

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