Mud Puddling

Well, we've entered the big melt where I live and work. 6 1/2 months worth of snow and ice are deciding to morph into something different - mud.

At school, the vast farm fields are speckled with puddles, and even, ponds. The park benches are now uncovered, and there are no more ice and snow forts built ontop and through them. The playgrounds? Well, now the firepoles are an actual challenge, and one can slide down them, instep of step out of them onto a snowbank.

With the melt, comes huge huge puddles, close to pond quality in the playground sand. One would think that hte kids would avoid the playground. No.

Again, the resourcefulness and creativity of children amazes me. Adults are squashing their engagement by screaming "get out of the puddles, where are your boots?" By noon, the new (assinine)safety rule has been implemented onto the playgroun STAY OFF OF THE PLAYGROUND. Yeah, like staying out of puddles has ever been a successful rule with stir crazy kids.

I, the rebellious one on staff... get very excited by what's happening out there. I don't care about soaking wet feet, pants, stinky muddy clothes. I'm totally fixated on these future project managers of our world. I tell them to go forth and conquer. I will absorb the bitching by the other staff.

Take the tire swing lake for instance. One group of kids decided they wanted to get on that swing, but couldn't get to it because the lake was way to big to reach the swing. So, here comes the resourcefulness. Digging streams and "paths" to drain the tireswing puddle just enough. These streams drained into the Slide Puddles.

Again, more teams are catching on. In a day's time, the playground has transformed into a sea of scribbled paths, working their way to the farm field beside the playground. The team has successfully drained most of the water from the important equipment.

A little wet? yep. A little dirty? Yep. Learning about dams, gravity, water flow, engineering, teamwork? Yep.