Once Upon a Time...

Akmal [the story teller above]: Once upon a time, there's a spider who lives under a big tree. His name is ....

Akmal told the story until finish while I'm just observing, making sure that none is running around or doing anything dangerous. Then the kids take ahort break. And that's where my story begins.

"Brother, nak dukung!"one of the toddler asked me to carry him on my back. "Well, ok. Hop on," I said, there wouldn't be much problem carrying such a small child. He climbed on my back and I hoist him up. I bring him round the Seminar Room where we have the class, other kids watching how high brought up their friend. After a couple of round I put him down at the front side of the class. I crouched down to pick up something when suddenly...

"Nak dukung!"
"Nak dukung!"
"Nak dukung!"

One of the kid suddenly cling on my back, the another. In the midst of chaos, another one hang on in front of me. I'm stunned and literally down on my knees by their combined weight. My friend have to hold those kids and tell them to ride on my back one at a time. They were reluctant at first, each of them want to be the first but at last they follow the orders. The kid who climbed on me first get the ride and that was the last as soon after Akmal resumed the class. Phew, thank God no one get hurt.



Then come colouring time, each of them was given a picture of a lion to color. Sure enough, those kids love it and immediately scrambling to get hold of the limited crayons available. The limited number of crayon is our deliberate act, we want them to interact among themselves. Anyway, the kids starts colouring. Some are keen like the guy above (he's a facilitator actually - and he helps to prepare the materials), but some got bored halfway. For example, this young man.



Me: Little brother, come on! Colour completely, there's a prize waiting for those who finish the job.

Young Man: I have a name, call me by name. (Ooops, my mistake)

Me: Ok, it's my fault. What is your name?

Young Man: My name is Nuar.

Me: Come Nuar, let's finish it up. I know you can.

He show me his paper me and tell me he gets fed up because the colour doesn't turn out evenly and nicely. Well, there's a remedy for that - just colour it part by part. Start with the legs, the body, the face. Only then you can see the progress. He followed my advice and with some assistance from me he finished his task. As a reward he gets a balloon and ask me to blew it (demanded actually).

I duly comply and easily blew it big while the other kids watched in awe. You can already guess it, then all of them ask me to make theri balloons big too. Man, such a pain to my jaw!

Handling kids might seems trivial and menial to many but actually there's lot to learn being with them. As you can read above, I got reminded by a child to always address by name. Then I learnt it the hard way to excersice moderation while doing something - I should have blew the balloon smaller and not ending up with a sore jaw.

Although this task sounds like child play, not everyone is able to conduct even a single session. One of us which happened to be the youngest child in her family wasn't able to engage the childrens attention. Frustrated, she had to be content studying alone at a corner of the room. Better luck for her next time I hope.