The Stolen Hat

I work in a nursery and when you work with children, you find you have a lot of stories to tell. However, when explained, most of my favourite stories seem so small and simple and yet all those tiny moments make a 38-hour working week so much more fun. 

Recently, one of the most triumphant moments all started with a hat that was thrown up into a tree. The children were playing in the garden when a little girl threw her hat up to catch it, instead a tree branch claimed it and the children where then faced with a problem… how do we get the hat back?

Of course, the first thing they decided to do was to come and ask a member of staff for help but then when they were posed with the question of “how do you think you can get the hat down?” it became a race to see who could think of the best idea first. It started with jumping, trying to push their legs as high of the ground as they possibly could but it didn’t take them to long to realise they just weren’t tall enough – no matter how high they jumped. Then came a line of other ideas, standing on the tips of their toes, using objects like hula hoops to reach, jumping from higher platforms and just generally running around crazily and just hoping it would fall.

Now this story has an underdog, a little boy standing to the side and watching quietly. He had been working out a plan to save the hat, he had watched all of the separate ideas each child had and put them all together. He dragged over a crate and picked up a hula hoop, he stood on it, went onto the tips of his toes and knocked the hat out of the tree.

The hat was saved! The best part? The reaction. Cheers began, all the children and all the staff started to clap and scream and laugh… all the while the little boy stood with the hat in his hand looking at everyone in utter confusion. He handed the hat back to the little girl and ran off to play – like nothing had happened.

And that was the end of that, 5 minutes that would become the highlight of the day and it all started because a tree decided to steal a small pink hat.

I hope you found some joy in my little story,

Lots of Love, Holly x