The Tenth Day of Christmas

On the tenth day of Christmas,

my true love sent to me

Ten lords a-leaping,

Nine ladies dancing,

Eight maids a-milking,

Seven swans a-swimming,

Six geese a-laying,

Five golden rings,

Four calling birds,

Three French hens,

Two turtle doves,

And a partridge in a pear tree.

According to Dictionary.com, one of the definitions of leap is "to spring or bound upward from or as if from the ground; jump". I'm not sure what kind of leaping the ten lords were doing, or why people jumping all around could be thought of as a nice present!

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I went back to work today after an almost two-week break. Even though it was hard to get up in the dark when the alarm went off, I was ready for a change of pace. It's too cold to be outside, and I'm tired of being housebound. On Mondays I arrive at work mid-morning. I found the class in the Motor Room doing exercises. The forecast today called for a high of 18 degrees, so they couldn't go outside and play.

Several rooms in the preschool where I work have multiple uses. One of them is the Motor Room. The large room is used for gross motor activities when the weather is too bad to go outside, by the physical therapists, and the Extended Day program after the regular classes let out. There's a wide variety of toys and equipment in there, and anyone can use it (although some of it I have no clue what it's used for).

Along one of the room's walls there are several mini trampolines. They're mostly used by the physical therapists, because jumping on a trampoline improves motor skills and balance, but occasionally someone else will take a turn on them.

At the end of the preschool day I moved over to Extended Day. The autistic student I work with there was tired and a bit crabby today. None of the usual activities held his interest for more than a few minutes, so I was scrambling trying to come up with something to keep him occupied; his behavior tends to deteriorate if he's not busy.

After each "academic" activity he did a gross motor one. He climbed in a small ball pit, slid down a Little Tikes slide, and crawled through a tunnel. I was running out of ideas when I looked over and saw the mini-trampolines. They don't always interest him, but I thought it was worth a try.

I guided him over to the bank of trampolines and helped him decide which one he wanted to use. I wish I could say that my suggestion made him completely happy and he spent a long time leaping, but after a couple of minutes he was finished with this activity too. However, it helped me fill the time until his mom came to pick him up.