It is the first Sunday in the month. That means it’s time to visit Sian at High in the Sky for a wonderful day of story telling. Story telling Sunday is wonderful in it’s self but I just love the way that reading a story can trigger a memory for the reader. That was me last month!
Amy‘s story in March reminded me of this.
Spring term 1992 Playschool
Ben was in trouble with Mrs. Malone, our playschool leader, again!
“What for this time?” I asked her.
“To encourage thinking about numbers we have some goldfish at playschool this week.” She told me.
“Today we have some pictures of empty goldfish bowls, each bowl has a number written above it. We asked the children to read the number and then draw that amount of goldfish in the bowl”. She showed me a template picture of a goldfish bowl. Bens had the number five printed over it.
Ben had only drawn four fish and apparently couldn’t be persuaded to draw any more.
He had drawn three skinny little fish and one fat little fish, coloured this way and that in orange of course. It was probably the only colour available to the children.
He had at least done that bit right for her.
“Why have you only drawn four fish Ben? Mrs Malone wanted you to draw five?”
Nowadays of course self-expression would receive a pat on the back but sadly we are in the early nineties…
“There are five fish mummy” chirped up my lad.
I looked harder… no, definitely only four.
“mummy can only see four darling” I said brightly.
“That one has a baby fish inside her tummy” He pointed to the fat one with the darker orangey bit in the middle (sounds like a little Jaffa cake!)
“That makes five fishes Mummy”
Can you imagine the smug smile I had on my face as I picked up my beautiful, funny, bright little chap and almost flounced out of play school?
There will be wonderful stories for you here today. Thank you Sian and Amy.
What a delightful story, I can picture him answering and you “flouncing” out and beaming 🙂 TFS
Great story! I was fearing that the answer to the riddle was going to be that one had been eaten!
Rinda
What a wonderful story & a bright little boy!!
What a wonderful story! Thanks for sharing.
OH I love that! Makes you wonder why the playgroup leader didn’t ask the question in the right way. Perhaps she was harrassed.
go Ben !! what creativity and tenacity
Brilliant 🙂 LOve it when our kids have such wonderful and vivid imaginations x
Lovely story especially the:
“mummy can only see four darling” I said brightly.
As I remember using that voice!
What a wonderful story and such a great imagination of your little lad so glad he can think out of the box hope he still can.
Oh yes! Stories that trigger new stories are the very best kind! I just love a boy with an imagination and the bravery to hold onto his own thought. Thanks for giving us this lovely story today Miriam.
What a great story and Ben certainley has a great imagination!
What a smart little boy!!! It is a shame the teacher hadn’t bothered to have that conversation with him. He knew exactly what 5 was 🙂
Aw! a baby fishy is coming!
how clever of Ben! And how silly of the teacher not to get it!
i was just waiting for that to be the punchline. one smart boy that ben
jo xxx
So glad the fourth fish wasn’t carniverous. Love it when the kids are smarter than the teachers!
Smart little boy 🙂 Well told Miriam – and good for him for being creative!
I can just see that flounce! LOVELY STORY!
Alison xx
ha ha! Brilliant. If I was his teacher I would have died laughing! What a smart little chap.
lovely story! here’s to teachers not sapping the creativity out of little ones!
a lovely story.
I thought he would’ve said one was eaten too! A great retort! Kids often surprise us!
oh that is a lovely story, what a clever little chap! I thought you were going to say that the fourth fish was fatter as it had eaten the fifth lol!
Wonderful story! One of my favorites of the day!
What a very clever little boy – that story made me really chuckle 🙂