Paper Airplane

Before I started studying early childhood education, I thought it would be a great opportunity for me to see the world through the innocent eyes of children. However, I now believe that I am far more innocent than most children. They have successfully tricked me many times.

Once a little girl asked me to draw her another ice cream because she had lost the first one I gave her. I said no because I had decided to quit my ice cream business after drawing and cutting out more than a dozen ice creams for the kids. It was interesting to see the kids choosing the flavors and licking their paper ice cream. But enough was enough. So I refused to make another one and the little girl begged and begged. Of course I finally relented and made another one for her - a bigger one as well, just as she requested. Later she asked me to put the new ice cream in her locker and guess what, I found the other ice cream there! I took both and went to ask her and she explained, 'The small one is for me and the bigger one is for my mummy.'  I had to smile at that. The next day her mum thanked me and said that she really enjoyed the big ice cream.

Another time, a girl came and showed me her bleeding toe and asked for a plaster. So I took her to the medical room and put a plaster on her toe carefully while another girl watched us with a great interest and asked me to put one on her knee as well but I refused. As I watched the injured girl walking out gingerly, I was worried and told her to go slowly. But she then told me that she had tricked me. She admitted that she just painted her toe red so that it looked like it was bleeding! Plasters are considered a proper fashion statement in the kindergarten these days in case you don’t know.

Kids' imagination always fascinates me and I find it very easy to be part of their play. One morning I saw some kids playing birthday party so I went to them and was about to sit down and join them when one boy said, 'No no, you can’t come, only kids are allowed!' I answered, 'I am a kid too, I am just bigger.' He looked at me bewilderedly and didn’t know what to say. So I smiled at him and he smiled back, then I sat down for a piece of imaginary birthday cake.

Once I saw a boy playing with water outside. He was determined to fill up the big water tank on his own even though he didn't have any buckets or containers. How is he going to solve the problem, I wondered. You will never guess what he used in the end. I watched him tilting his head, opening up his mouth as wide as he could under the faucet, filled it up with water and 'carried' the water carefully to the water tank and repeated the process until he got bored of his mission. My mouth was probably open too, full of surprise and admiration.

Being with kids has already taught me many things although I am afraid that I still have a lot more to learn. One day the whole school took the bus to visit a girl at her new school who just turned five and left us to start primary school. When we arrived, she was waiting for us outside. The kids spotted her and shouted out her name and waved excitedly. She waved back with a huge grin on her happy face and came and took us to her new classmates and teachers. We all sat down and introduced ourselves one by one. One of our teachers was crying when she described how she watched the girl growing up and how much she would be missing her. I saw the girl’s mum and some of the teachers also had tears in their eyes. Later we sang songs and had our morning tea together. One of the songs is still stuck in my head now, 'Hallelujah' - a beautiful song.

One of the lessons I have learned is from a little boy. Early one morning a boy asked me to make a paper airplane for him but I told him I didn’t know how to because I had never made one before. He just stared straight in my eyes and said, “So you just do your best!” I burst out laughing. But of course I know he was right. I followed his advice and tried my best and finally made my first ever paper airplane!

You just do your best indeed.

Free Hugs, Free Cuddles, Free Germs

Last month I finished my three-week kindergarten teacher training and I am still recovering from it now. It's the steepest learning curve I have ever experienced. During my training I was with about 25 children for 7 hours everyday although I had never spent more than two hours at a time with any child before. It was physically draining but emotionally exhilarating.

Having said that, I must admit that I am a real sucker for hugs and cuddles even though they usually come with germs when kids are involved. Once at the mat time, I had three kids sitting on me and fighting for my attention. I was struggling to balance all four of us, a task reminding me why I’m not in the circus, when one kid told the other two that only she was allowed to sit on my lap which unfortunately created a heated debate and I had to hush them up.

Some of the kids are dangerously passionate. Once a 4-year-old girl came running to me while I was sitting on the mat with other kids and knocked me over when she threw herself at me. We both went down and I landed on my elbow and it started bleeding. There were a few other similar occasions although I didn't need plasters in those cases.

They are usually so sweet that they can just melt you. One of the little girls has declared her undying love for me while sitting on my lap, giggling with her chubby arms around my neck and kissing my cheeks - oh yeah kids kiss too, but usually my hands and arms though. Of course I understand I was just a new toy for the kids, but I was alarmed when some kids asked if they could call me mummy. In fact one of them started calling me mummy even after I said no. I only hope that their real mummies will never find out about their betrayal.

I think that children are affectionate because they are not afraid of rejections. As we grow up, we lose some natural abilities kids take for granted, for example:

-- Ability to trust instinct: we let greed, vanity and other ugly emotions to take charge.

-- Ability to be happy:  kids don't need to smoke/drink/get stoned to be happy.

-- Ability to allow ourselves to make mistakes: pride is never a serious concern for kids.

And worst of all, we learn to use language to mask our feelings and manipulate others'. The more socialized and sophisticated we get, the more pretentious and skillful we are. City kids are 'smarter' than country kids, and older kids are better trained at getting what they want than younger kids.

Oh well, I think there is nothing we can do about that. Just give me a hug and a cuddle, will you? No germs please.