Of Pencils and Stylus

I have problems getting Cavan to write and draw on paper. He simply isn't interested. I wonder if I should be concerned, since he does his worksheets in nursery, colouring and drawing. The teacher's review (last year) was that Cavan had very strong language abilities, both in English and Chinese but showed little enthusiasm in craftwork.

Recently, I had a revelation. Cavan is not uninterested in writing and drawing. He is uninterested and uninspired by paper and pencil (or crayon, for that matter). For a long time, he often asks to doodle on our handphones and PDAs. Give him a paper and a pencil (or crayon) and he barely musters a few weak strokes. Give him a magnetic doodle board or an aqua doodle mat or a PDA and he can write his name and create pieces.

The following are some of his works. I would ask him what he drew. Below are the replies:

A girl

A dog

A happy face

Bird on a tree

Guess we've introduced him too early to a high tech world. I wonder how he's going to survive in school next time. Unless the school uses PC tablets of course. Meanwhile, we'd better "de-technologize" him and get him used to paper and pencils.

Cavan's Encounter with Mr Policeman

I received a phonecall from Cavan's teacher last Friday as I was travelling home from work. I got an initial scare.

Me: "Hello?"
Ms Gracie: (sounding unsure) "Is this Mrs Yee, erm, Cavan's mother?"
Me: (growing suspicious) "Yes?"
Ms Gracie: (sounding secretive) "Mrs Yee, actually I'm calling you regarding Cavan..."
Me: (Oh dear, what has my son done) "Yyyyes?"
Ms Gracie: "Actually, I just wanted to tell you that today during school...(Oh please, hurry and tell me what's going on)... that I put a present in Cavan's bag.
Me: (relieved) "Oh..." (I wasn't sure how to respond)
Ms Gracie: "Because today, we had a police officer... (Police officer? What happened? Sounds serious!)... who gave a talk in school."
Me: "Okay..." (Still waiting for more clues)
Ms Gracie: "And later there was a quiz at the end of talk."
Me: "Okay..." (Still waiting for more clues)
Ms Gracie: "Cavan volunteered to go up and answer the police officer's question. I thought that was very brave of him, so I decided to give him a little present after that."

What a relief! I thought what happened.

So it happened that the police officer was having a little quiz that was opened to K1 & K2 kids. N1 & N2 kids weren't really asked questions as they were too young and might not know how to answer or they might be fearful to go to the front. (Cavan is in N1)

However, Cavan went up to Ms Gracie and indicated that he would like to go up and answer the officer's question. So when the officer asked for a volunteer, Cavan raised his hand.

According to Ms Gracie, Cavan did not display any fear when standing in front of the assembly and in front of the officer. When the police officer asked Cavan a series of questions, Cavan was very attentive and looked at the officer when the questions were posed. He was able to answer the officer's questions.

Ms Gracie commented that she was very impressed with Cavan on his courage, that he dared to volunteer, not knowing what questions would be asked, and that he was able to pay attention to the officer. She marvelled that this was quite rare for a child his age hence wanted to commend him.

I felt so pleased with Cavan. Both Clement and I were so proud of him.

When we reached home, Cavan did not mention about this incident at all till we probed him. He repeated the questions asked and his replies to us. He was as pleased as punch over the whole incident.

Later, he said that when he wanted to be a policeman. But even later, he changed his mind and said he wanted to be a soldier because he can shoot people. Wherever he got this notion from?

Anyway, this was a pleasant news to us. Ms Gracie can get some award for storytelling, for creating fear and suspense.