I bet you would agree. Well, sometimes, they can be smarter than you at alphabets, arithmetic or whatever you are trying to teach them.

She was a 3 year old girl just beginning to learn alphabets. Kids can get difficult at times, and might also be uninterested, particularly when their favorite cartoon characters are starting out on yet another adventure on TV. Her mother found it too difficult to draw her attention away from the television and make her concentrate on her books. Her uncle offered to help. Her mother was more than happy to hand over the responsibility and go back to the kitchen.

Mr. Uncle seemed confident and determined at the job at hand. “She is just a 3 year old, and I have my ways of teaching”, he must have thought. Today’s target was to teach her at-least 2 alphabets, A and B.

She was more fond of her uncle. He used to bring her chocolates, take her out on his bike and was never angry at her. She had her reasons. Perhaps, she was bored of the cartoons and thought this was going to be interesting.

Mr. Uncle pulled out a blank sheet of paper. She sat down beside her, with a pencil in her hand, with all the focus and concentration required of her. Mr. Uncle started with 5 DOTS on the paper. She seemed confused. Mr. Uncle explained her, “Look here, the first DOT is your house, the second one is my house, the third DOT is your school, the fourth one is Papa’s office and the fifth one is your friend’s house. Now, to learn how to write an “A”, you start from your house, go to my house, then go to your school, and then Papa’s office and finally to your friend’s house.” He didn’t connect the dots, rather he explained it to her(sequence) 2-3 times.

After Mr. Uncle was satisfied that his point was put across, he asked her, “Understood?”. With a little smile on her face, she nodded her head. And then Mr. Uncle said, “Now write A with the help of dots”.

Without a live demonstration, she looked confused and perplexed. Mr. Uncle tried to help her out. He said, “Ok no problem, I will help you out. How would you go from your house to mine?”

She was now smiling again. That’s the hint she was looking for. With the pencil in her hand, she stoop up, and put her foot on the sheet of paper. 😀