Basketball Present Moments

Tuesdays I teach 30 minutes of P.E. to my daughter's 4th grade class. Today I tried to divide the class into 3 teams. They lined up & I counted off 1,2,3, 1,2,3, 1,2,3... Instead of 3 groups of 10, 12 Ones stood socializing, 13 Twos and only 5 Threes were together. It's crazy how sneaky & cliquey kids are. With several bullies & a few more emotionally charged classmates, they know who they want on their team. We had to re-line-up & count off 4 times before everyone finally stuck to their numbered team.

After that it was a blast! They cheered passionately for their teammates as they played the basketball drill/game....until one player kicked a basketball too hard into someone's head, then one tripped another resulting in scraped knees & tears, then a bully said to another boy "a girl beat you!!!" which sent him off crying & most the class tattling on the bully for saying it, then a kid pouted & held onto his ball running away which stalled the game & got everyone crazy upset for wasting time. I had to be quick, put out the fires, keep the game going while hopefully teaching a life lesson to the assailants. But they played so well in between incidents, forgot about the drama within seconds - such good role models for me.

Hanging out with kids refreshes me! Interacting with their different personalities keeps my brain in the present moment. And staying present is all I want to do. I came home really happy because a few kids thanked me for coming to play & didn't care that I hadn't showered. And now I love writing about it with my tea & pop tart; it's kind of present moment but kind of reminisent too. Just what I need before bed.

The positivity blog has a list of 8 things to bring you to the present moment.