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I am usually in the presence of eight to ten year-olds. Around those ages they are more or less are in the in-between phase of being composed little young people whilst still retaining that sense of being joyful and imaginative.

On rare occasions though I get to play with the early learners, who more or less live in the world of imagination and where everything is just magical and well let’s face it, chaos and widespread destruction. I have never really appreciated how preschool teachers must have work doubly hard to facilitate learning and to keep things in the semblance of calm in their classrooms. To my surprise, I found it quite challenging to teach the little ones the simple concept of oxygen and its relationship to water quality. Good thing there is Tissue, the class pet-turtle who needs air to breath. Thank God for turtles! I never realize that they can be life savers. It suddenly just got simpler when explained from Tissue’s perspective.

I thought that it would be an uphill battle but learning with them got easier when we did story-telling. I am mightily glad that stories never fail to fascinate everyone across ages. Judging from the rare stillness and hushed atmosphere in the room, I successfully managed to get their complete attention even for that single moment in time. That was already one heck of an achievement for me, but what caught my heart was that one plucky little boy who put his forehead against mine who looked deeply into my eyes with a look of mixed thoughtfulness and surprise. As if saying tacitly “You are fun despite being old”.

And that’s how I ended my pretty special day with the little ones.

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