Today was a lot of fun. I was asked to take part in Careers week in my daughter Amelia’s preschool class. She goes to the wonderful Crossabeg Community Creche and both Mr H and I thank the stars that our children have that privilege. The care and dedication from all the staff there is incredible and it means that I get to write a couple of afternoons a week, without a single worry that the children are OK.
So back to Careers day, for preschoolers no less – I know! I was a bit surprised that they start them that young, but basically it just involved me having a wee chat to a room full of 3 and 4 year old’s about being a writer. It was really a great experience as the children were just so unbelievably adorable!
I wondered what to expect as only a few weeks ago the subject of what Mummy does for a living had come up and given me a giggle. Amelia told me, “You make playgrounds Mummy and you tell stories and you work on your iPad.” Quite!
I shared that story in an article I wrote for Contemporary Living, the link to which is below. Contemporary Living is a lovely online magazine that you should check out with lots of great content.
http://www.contemporaryliving.ie/index.php/2013/05/25/how-do-children-see-you-parent/
I figured before I went into the preschool today I better put Amelia straight on what I actually do in case she clouded the issue with the kids and started talking about slides and swings. So last night as I snuggled with Amelia at bedtime I explained to her what I really do and that I would be going with her to preschool this morning to have a chat about being a writer. She was quite excited about it all, telling me that I was her ‘Show and tell.’ I’m probably the biggest show and tell that the preschool have actually had before 😉 size wise I mean!
As we drove over there this morning, she chatted away about how she was going to be a writer when she was a big girl just like me. But she would write about animals, probably giraffes. But the world needs more stories about giraffes so thats a good idea I think.
So other than my daughter trying to flash me – yes flash me – the chat went exceedingly well and I was so impressed by the intelligence of the questions some of the little ones asked me. (Amelia got a little overwhelmed by the whole situation, she insisted on clinging to my legs during the chat and once or twice felt the need to put her head under my dress – hence the flash! Thank God it was cold this morning down Wexico Way, cos’ I had jeggings on to save my blushes!)
We chatted about the different types of writers there are and once I realised that I needed to keep mentioning Ben 10 to keep one little boy happy, the time flew by. I had a lovely awww moment when I explained to the children that sometimes writers tell stories about real people rather than pretend people, and these are often famous. One of the little boys said, ‘Like my Daddy?’ Yes, exactly like his Daddy. All the Daddy’s are famous to the 3 and 4 year olds aren’t they?
We made up our own story which basically was about a 4 armed, 4 legged alien, who lived on Star Wars land, who had a friend called Ben 10 and who sometimes hit people (yes that’s what one little boy wanted!) who ate icecream with slugs and chocolate sauce. Basically a bestseller there I reckon.
Also, I got to see a project that the children worked on last week. They all wrote their own books and the teachers had tirelessly wrote out each of their stories by hand and made little books for them all, in which they did their own illustrations. Genius and a wonderful keepsake for the children and us parents. Amelia’s will go with her ever increasing memory box. We’ll need a second house for the keepsakes soon 😉
And seeing just how excited the children were about reading and writing and how vivid their imaginations are, I am in no doubt that the future of Irish Fiction is in very good hands. 🙂 Thanks to the Crossabeg Superheroes of course.
