Entertainment Value Of A Simple Sharpener!

Who knew that a humble and simple sharpener could provide so much fun?

What I like to call our faithful English kids, have been with us for over a year now, more or less 1 hour per week. We have seen them progress from an age with all their milk teeth in place, to one where the front two are glaringly missing.

Isn't it funny how we would hotfoot it to the dentist while they are extremely proud and chuffed with that gap. That GAP shows all and sundry that they are no longer little! ( Trying to pronounce some English words through that gap can be rather funny though. )

I won't bore you with the gory details we were told. You know the details of how those teeth left the gums. Not by themselves I gather. It involved a thread, door handle and a not-so-squeamish Dad! When those two front teeth were still dangling in the gums, she wanted to pull them out in our class. Bob nearly had a cadenza at the thought of what he would see. It took him all his effort to deter her.

Last year Bob and I bought a box of wax crayons for the kids. Over time they became well used and rather blunt. For weeks I was reminded by one girl to please buy a sharpener. In fact her
" Oh no Biggi, you forgot again! " comment made me rush out and buy a sharpener.

If I had known how much fun they would have with it, I would have bought one sooner. Yesterday was a surprising and eventful class for us. The quietest kid in the group opened the crayon box, saw the sharpener and said in English " Oh, a Sharpener ". Goodness, I was so proud that he could recall such a difficult word.

Then he started to sharpen one of the wax crayons, successfully. Not such an easy task with a pencil sharpener. Once he had turned to the next crayon, the bits falling from the sharpener created a nice mixture of filings. All of a sudden, the others noticed his efforts. The Uno game in progress was stopped halfway. Clearly the sharpening affair was far more interesting!

It took about two minutes before the sharpener was wrestled from him and the next one had a go. The pile of filings grew larger and more colourful. To be honest, I would have liked to have had a turn as well, but all three were fighting over how many each could sharpen. Just in case they would run out of crayons to sharpen, one girl ingeniously ( oh yes, the one with the GAP ) took a crayon and broke it in two. Instantly more sharpening material...

Oh yes, I was once again reminded that the simple things in life can be and are so much fun.

Biggi

The before and after. Clearly hours of fun still ahead..