Teacher Emily, TotalChild Preschool Menjalara Kepong

It was a lovely morning.

While I was organizing the class, A hurried to see me, “Teacher Emily, a fish in the aquarium died!”
So I quickly followed A to check what had happened.

I then noticed that one of our pet guppies was trapped in the shallow water between the aquatic leaves. Not knowing how long the fish had been trapped, I told A that it was still alive because it was still breathing.

A was very glad to hear that. However he asked again, “Why the fish can’t swim? Is it because of broken bones?” I smiled and replied, “Maybe.” I did not take his concern seriously.
 
Then A suggested taking the fish to see a doctor. That was a wild idea! I have not heard about a fish see the doctor. Who would take a fish to see the doctor? It is just a fish after all.

In order to find an easy way out, I tried to comfort A by telling him the fish was going to be fine soon. We should let it rest for a while and hopefully it could swim again. Even so, A was still worried. He decided to stay by the aquarium to accompany the ailing fish.

It must have been half an hour later or so, we then found the fish died eventually.

I felt terrible. I was sure A felt even worse. We could have saved the fish’s life if we took the fish to the doctor, maybe?

I learned a valuable lesson from this incident.  Children care about things around them, be it the tiniest thing, and adults tend to overlook it.

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J sat on the floor with both hands hiding her face. There was a  puddle of water right on the spot where she was sitting. She kept saying “I don’t want …” meanwhile, turning away from the teacher who offered help.

All in a sudden, the scenario made perfect sense to me. J peed in her pants.  The teacher tried to get her to change.

I could guess the little face behind the hands was full of tears. J was in total embarrassment. That was why she chose to sit on the spot to cover up.

The tricky part, I thought, was to persuade her to move herself to the bathroom to get changed as quickly as possible.  You see, kids can be stubborn at times.

 “Hey it’s ok. Let’s rush to the bathroom before anybody sees us, how about that?”

Fortunately J thought that was a good idea too. She stood up and tiptoed to the bathroom.

In the bathroom, while cleaning her, I tried to cheer her up with my embarrassing moments.

“You know what, when I was little, I peed in my pants too. There was once I passed motion in my pants.”

“Huh? Really? That’s embarrassing. How could you let it happen?” Her little eyes were shining as if she was much better compared to my case.

“I guess accidents happen sometimes. As long as it doesn’t happen every day, we will be just fine.”

“Shame shame, teacher.” J gave me a cunning smile.