Aspiring teacher?

Ever since Karyn turned two and had a better grasp of her speech and communication skills, her favourite role-playing game is "lesson time" in which she transforms herself into a teacher and us into her students.

Instead of mimicking what her peers are doing in school, her role models are the teachers, especially her form teacher, Teacher Ang! I think other than absorbing the content of the lessons, she also takes in the processes as well, i.e. observing and imitating her teachers.

Why do I say so? At home, she'd have schooling episodes in which she'll tell us stories or teach us lessons. She's so good at it that when holding up a book, the book faces us instead of her. And surprisingly, she really can "read" and "teach" from the teachers' perspective!

Notice how she holds the book

She loves teaching (or is it revising?) her Chinese, Mathematics and Phonics worksheets, in that order of preference. We usually have to put up with at least 30 mins of "lessons" every night. Oh, did I mention that when she speaks Mandarin, she sounds like an "ang moh", with the "ang moh" accent to boot! It's so funny that her Gong Gong calls her a "banana" (Chinese who can't speak Mandarin properly). Oh well, hopefully she'll continue to enjoy learning Chinese and not find it as challenging as other kids who come from English speaking families.

Okay, I have sidetracked. Back to her role plays...

Sometimes, when we refuse to play along with her by reading after her or answering her questions, she'd say "Naughty girl/boy" to me or her daddy respectively, with a pout and an annoyed expression. In fact, sometimes she'd even say things like "sit down, everybody, sit down", "keep quiet and fold your arms"... We figured that must be how the teachers instruct the children in school.

Typical expression when we don't play along with her

Unbelievable right? Sometimes I wonder, having a mum who's an ex-teacher, could she possibly have teaching in her blood too???