So many little things happen during workshops! That’s what makes them so much fun.
For instance, my reading programme began on Tuesday and I started with Asha Nehemiah’s Trouble with Magic. We spoke about all the wonderful things we’d invent because, in some ways, science and magic are pretty much the same thing.
One child would invent a door. You step through the door and get to whatever place you want to go. You just have to tell the door where you’d like to be.
“And what trouble could you have with magic of this sort?” I asked.
The boy thought for a bit. “If you don’t speak clearly,” he said, very clearly. “You could end up in the wrong place.”
Another child invented this – a vacation machine! Do notice how machine is spelt. Also, I love that the key words are there. No more and no less!
At my writing programme yesterday, I had more fun. The children here are older and I wanted to start a conversation about how we choose names for our characters. I asked them to come up with a nickname for each of the others – including me, if they wanted. I’ve done this activity before and many children are often shy about giving me a nickname. But yesterday was all kinds of delightful.
One girl named me ‘Funsha’. She wanted to use my real name as the root and couple it with a characteristic she associates with me. Isn’t that just lovely?
There’s another girl called Vrinda in the batch, whom she renamed ‘Vrintresting’ because, well, she’s very interesting.
Another girl named me Mia.
After a horse.
She reddened as soon as she realised how that sounds, but quickly explained, “I go horse riding and I love that horse! She’s friendly, calm, patient and just … she reminds me of you!”
I’ve never been named after a horse before, and I certainly never expected to feel so delighted about it!
Leave a Reply