A Night At Step By Step

Our three and four-year-old playroom

My Thursday nights at Step By Step are always unpredictable in the absolute best of ways. Whenever I step through the doors of Immanuel Baptist Church, I never know exactly what excitement lies ahead of me; for an entire two and a half hours, I have the privilege of taking on the roles of best friend and playmate to a handful of bright, passionate kids. If there's anything I've learned over the past several weeks, it's that the children at Step By Step have unbreakable spirits. Despite any hardships that may exist in their lives, these toddlers always come into the playrooms with an inspiring sense of wonder. I truly believe that people of any age could benefit from taking note of their innocence, as well as their genuine love and desire for fun. From 6:30 to 8:30, they do what kids do best: simply be a kid. 

As a volunteer in the three to four-year-old age group room, I get to interact with a few different children on the regular. Although it varies from week to week, the common faces in my room include Samara who is four and Karan who is five, but has a preference and attachment to the volunteers in our room. Samara was the first child I ever met at Step By Step, and is always one of the first to arrive. Let me tell you: I have never seen such a fiery little girl in my entire life. Samara isn't afraid of speaking her mind (but she always has the funniest things to say), has an imagination out of this world, and never seems to slow down for anyone or anything. She's independent, she's loving, and she's a complete blast to play with. This past week, she, another volunteer from a different CIS course, and I orchestrated an oh-so-dramatic game of pretend where she was a princess being stolen away to an evil witch's castle. I was the goodhearted queen/mother. It wasn't enough for me to come to her rescue only once, but rather at least four times - apparently life as a princess is dangerous! Samara never fails to make me laugh until my stomach hurts and I hope I can continue to see her larger-than-life personality blossom throughout the rest of the semester. Seeing her eyes light up when she sees the volunteers arrive does my heart good. On top of everything, a night is never complete without her comically rolling down the window in her car and yelling goodbye to us in the parking lot.

I spent a lot of time in particular with Karan this last Thursday. Unlike Samara, she's much more timid, but incredibly smart. She's bubbly and giggly and one of the sweetest kids I've ever met. We played a lot of different games together this previous week; we played cashier with a bright pink cash register toy and colored pictures of rainbows. Karan's thought process is precious. When we were coloring, I asked her, "What do you want to be when you grow up? Do you know?" and without missing a beat, she replied, "I want to be queen Elsa" (don't we all?). When we finished our coloring pages I asked if I could take a picture of our finished masterpieces and she approved, proudly demonstrating how well she could write her name. Eventually she became the photographer, leaving me with a lot of pictures of herself, the ground, the wall, other people, the table, our snack for the night, cotton balls, and more.

Above: Karan's rainbow

Karan requested that we transitioned into the "monkey room", which is the foam indoor playground. With Keya's (the program director) approval, our room took the kids into the playroom. I am constantly amazed at how much energy exists in such tiny humans. After chasing Karen around for about fifteen minutes, it was eventually time to call it a night. Seeing the kids being reunited with their moms is rewarding and heartwarming; there is so much love.

I'll be back at Immanuel Baptist this upcoming Thursday for another night of make-believe and crayons. There's always an adventure waiting to be made.