Who let the moth out?

There were a bunch of kids at playgroup yesterday. We were late as usual, since I did school with Sparkle first. We got there just in the middle of snack time and Sparkle and Glitter were eager to eat. There was a bit of a tussle because the girls wanted to sit next to each other, but the table was already full. Then they were off to play.

After we had been there a while, Sparkle was in the middle of a small knot of kids with her hand closed tightly around something. Turns out she had caught a moth that had wandered into the nursery. She wanted to know what to do with it. Since she had caught it, I assumed that simply releasing it wasn't the answer. So, I told her to toss it outside. She dutifully went to the closest door and opened it to toss the moth outside. As I watched her, I realized my mistake. The closest door was the door to the playground. I should have told her to use the door to the walkway. No sooner had Sparkle opened the door than the younger kids wanted to go outside to play, including a determined toddler who was already halfway out the door. The toddler's parent gathered him and shut the door. All the kids started clamoring to go outside, and none of the other parents knew why. I had to explain that it was my fault because I told Sparkle to throw the moth outside.

Strangely enough, even thought Sparkle had tossed the moth outside, it managed to fly back inside, and she had caught it again. This time, I directed her to the door to the walkway and held it open for her while she chucked the moth out. It flew away and all was well again. By this time several of the kids had their shoes on and were happily playing outside. Sparkle and Glitter joined them.

I was quite proud of Glitter. I told her to keep her shoes on, and she actually did, even though mulch got into her shoes. Instead of taking her shoes off herself, she came to me and let me shake out the mulch and put her shoes back on.