Scene: Tutorial Room
[script may not be exactly accurate. But the main points are there]
Lecturer: Do you have any children?
Student: Yes, 3.
Lecturer: How old are they?
Student: Youngest is 4, eldest is 11.
Lecturer: How about your second child?
Student: uhhhh... She's about 8 years old.
Lecturer: About??? Uh-huh..... the middle child syndrome!
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See, the issue circulating the middle child is so very real.
Parents, please remember to mention your middle child's age when you're asked of your children's age. We don't appreciate being known as between 4 to 11 years old. Thank you.
And please be sure of our age. If we're 8 years old, we're 8 years old. There's no about about it.
The conversation in the tutorial room was rather funny though. No offence intended to said student. heh.
So 1st week back to school was rather enriching. A few new lecturers, new (and mostly) interesting modules. And we finally had our first lunch at one of the NTU's canteen.
I'm still in a daze-mode though. But oh my, only 6 weeks of NIE left.
Having many hours of lessons in a week can be rather draining. Especially if you have spent the past 2 months doing too-fun things and visiting too-fun countries like Turkey. By the end of the week I was so mentally-drained that I forgot what I wanted to say mid-sentence, jumbled up words when talking, and spelled "purple" wrongly. Everyone knows that SFQ must be really off if she mis-spelled "purple". That's almost a crime.
But some of the tutorial and lecture session were really really fun. We de-coded a Braille passage, learnt about children's motor development and how it could affect their progression as they grow, and practised story-telling. Ah, story-telling has never been such buckets of fun. With props and such. And I got to (sort of) play the guitar! So it was only 2 notes, as background sound during the story-telling session. Only 2 notes, and i struggled a bit. But heh, it was FUN.
There's just something very attractive about children's books. Maybe it's the illustrations. Or the repetitive sentences. Or the endearing characters.
There's just something very HAPPY about the books. That makes you read word for word till the end, with a smile on your face.
Or maybe, it's the realisation that there's always, always that little piece of KID in you.