Simon Comes to Wayland in Hopes of Setting a Record

They aren’t even out of preschool, but some Wayland kids are already taking aim at a world record.

Last week nearly 60 children at in Wayland lined the white picket fence of the school’s playground for a potentially record-breaking game of Simon Says.

Goddard Schools throughout the country participated in the event, which was an attempt to create the largest game of multi-site Simon Says on record.

Wayland Goddard School Director Jan Tiger played Simon for the record attempt and had the kids sitting down, standing up, wiggling, hopping, spinning, crawling and more during the 10-minute activity.

Tiger explained that the rules stated at least 10 schools with at least 25 kids each had to play Simon Says for 10 minutes beginning at 1 p.m. Eastern on Friday, Sept. 23.

“We just thought it would be fun to participate,” Tiger said. “Everybody loves Simon Says. Plus, a lot of people don’t ever get to make a world record.”

Official witnesses for the event included Wayland firefighter Todd Winner and Wayland Patch Editor Brooklyn Lowery, who certified via official forms the number of children who played and what they witnessed during the game.

Winner is in charge of making sure all the preschools and daycares in Wayland take part in a mandated number of fire drills. When he visited the Goddard School earlier this month, they asked him to return and witness the world-record attempt. As it turned out, Winner was a celebrity among the children who had grown used to seeing the firefighter through their various beginning-of-the-year fire drills.

As the game got underway, it grew clear that Simon would not have an easy time fooling these children, even though Tiger said she had ample Simon Says experience with full “qualifications to be Simon.”

At last Chava Roseman emerged as the quiet victor, the last kid standing as all her classmates took seats on the grass after being fooled when “Simon didn’t say.”

The Goddard School has submitted the witness forms to be assessed by the record-granting authorities, but has not yet heard whether they set the record.

Patch will update the story when the results are in.