After watching our little friend Sam do somersault after somersault on the sand, getting covered from head to toe with sand, I decided I just had to see what all the hype was about. I surprised and delighted the little guy when I started somersaulting with him, so much so that he wouldn’t let me stop. He would take my hand and pull me up again, and say “more” and put his fingers together in front of him using the sign language sign for “more” which he learned when he was a baby to help him communicate with his parents.
I learned a very important lesson from doing somersaults on the beach- they are fun! And it’s really not all that bad to be covered everywhere with sand, even when it’s all around your eyes and mouth. As painful as it is to look at someone who has sand all over, because you are assuming they are miserable, you don’t even notice the sand when you’re the one who is covered. Of course I was scraping sand out of my long hair for days, but I’d say it was well worth it.
We should clue in a little more to the things that kids do that make us say “They’re crazy”, and instead give them a try.
