True story: an entire double rainbow has graced our sky for the last two nights in a row. What a potent feeling, to walk out into the street, light rain peppering my hair (or what hair remains, anyway), tickling my scalp I have my phone in hand, ready to take a picture, maybe post it somewhere, Facetok, Instabook, Tikgram. And then I see what I am doing, and pause I don’t need a phone to look at the sky All I need are eye...
Dashing through the snow on a bright red sled he goes carrying a sackful of berries to everyone he knows. Fa la la la la! Fa la la la la! He’s flying through the trees past sparkling evergreens to all the deer little girls and boys in their Christmas dreams. Fa la la la la! Fa la la la la! Fresh snowfall on the ground Christmas day is here deer families celebrating wishing to all good cheer! Fa la la la la! Fa la la la la...
It is a quiet fall day and Halloween is right around the corner. Halloween candy as far as the eye can see. Itty bitty candy bars and mountains of candy corn and Laffy taffy.Little ones in their Halloween costumes. Witches, ghosts, firemen, nurses, and policemen. The usual cast of characters for spooky good fun.Parents looking for things to occupy the little ones to keep them safe. The little ones are excited about storyt...
She sat on the beach watching her children playing in the surf. She knew they were perfectly safe but also knew the dangers of the water all too well. Her husband sat on the sand next to her, his arm around her shoulder comforting her and making her feel secure. "Do you ever miss it?" She looked a little wistfully as one of her sisters rose high in the water with her older daughter on her shoulders. "No, Eric. I can't...
I got told off today. Not unusual at all, really. The little person who told me off has not long turned two, and already she is quite the character. I made the observation to one of my colleagues that she ought to be a teacher when she's older, as she's quite bossy. I really do enjoy the company of this child. I like all the children I teach, of course, but she and I have this rapport going, I'm her person. She's a real c...
I had perched myself on the child-sized chair in the family play area, conveniently, this was also right underneath the heat pump. It was icy cold that morning. Two girls were with me, and we were consuming pretend cups of tea and having a good ol gossip sesh. R comes in and asks to join in. The more the merrier, so she proceeds to brew some tea and put some baking in the oven. "Hey Laura," R says to me. "Yes," I answer. ...
My Alarm goes off at 6 am... it starts with the calm mellow tones of Enya, then Adiemus and progresses through to the likes of Pink Martini and Fever Ray. I really do not like waking up, my finger is well trained at locating the snooze button, so off I go again, back to the land of nod, subconsciously aware of the gentle sounds until I’m very rudely brought back to reality by ACDC’s “Thunderstruck” blaring out. It’s alrea...
I was watching, amused, as two girls had a tiff over one of the activity boards. One of the girls stood up and made to walk away. The other girl said something I couldn't make out. The girl who was standing turned around, put her hands on her hips and declared loud and proud, "Don't care, grumpy bear!" then she stormed off in dramatic four-year-old fashion. That's a great line. I'm using that in any future tiffs or argume...
"How will I know when I'm an adult Saba?" the boy asked his grandfather. The grandfather looked into his inviting blue eyes, pools of clear water, careful not to fall into them."Do you want the answer all adults give to their children or do you want my answer?" the saba asked his eleven-year-old grandson, whose name happened to be Daniel, but this saba did not believe in chance. Daniel meant "God has judged me" in Hebrew,...
"Heeeeeey teacher," a child said to me, just as I was about to sit down and effectively ruin the fun of the children who were painting without fully being supervised."My name is Laura, not teacher," I said. Oh, the joys of working at a new school."Laula," the child said. Close enough. "How can I help?" I asked little Miss Four, standing in front of me. She was looking very bright and colourful in some new dress ups the ki...
Everyone has a story to tell, about who they are, where they came from, what their names mean. Not to boast (okay, I’m boasting a tad) I happen to believe there’s something extra magical about mine. While I don’t believe in organized religion, you might even say it was God’s doing; I happen to believe it’s fate. In order to know my story, you first have to look before me, even before my parents, but to theirs. Their Fathe...
Coming from within the kids' bathroom I heard the unmistakable sounds of children laughing, a pause, some low sounds that I could not quite make out from where I was, then the loud sound of laughter once more. Walking across the classroom, the low sounds became clearer, as a picture was painted as to what the children were doing in the bathroom when they were supposed to be getting changed after having some fun summer wat...
My breath comes in great gasps. I stand panicked but subdued in a long, thin, dust filled communal toilet. Several of the buildings in our street have been lost to bombs in the past few days, and the dust seems to hang around like a fog.The white and dark blue tiling on the walls and floor reflect the remains of the daylight, which plays with the Brownian dust particles. As much is hidden by the dust as is revealed by the...
"Shut up and eat it." We all laughed. It was the last family gathering, And it was still funny. After all these years. Still funny. It could easily be bitter. But no. No. We all understood the reasons behind the words. As do our kids today. They have heard the same words growing up and still understand. More and more each day. To be wondering where the money will come from. To feed a family. The hardships one must live...
It's the little things of the job that make everything worth it. All the stress of working in education, all the meetings with the big bosses, the paperwork, the endless staff meetings, professional developments, the weekend-long courses, all the after-hours work we have to put it to get work complete, that all just seems to melt away with the little moments that happen each day. Those special times when you just smile to...
