Blog Marathon Post 2 - The very hungry caterpillar

“The very hungry caterpillar” was introduced to me and T by my host-mother who had come to visit me in Stuttgart to see T for the first time in 2013. I had stayed in her house in 2003 when I had gone to Magdeburg on a scholarship and we still had kept in touch. She gave us a German version of that story “Die kleine Raupe Nimmersatt” written by Eric Carle. T did not understand much then as he was just 13 months old that time, but he got hooked to it once he started going to the daycare there as he was read the story before a nap in the afternoon almost daily.

As he started talking, I started reading out that story to him and he repeated it along with me and learnt it by-heart. We left Germany a year back. He lost touch with the language and the people and the food, but that story book came back with us. He was introduced to a whole new world of the English language and within no time he picked it up too. The Kleine Raupe Nimmersatt came to meet him, this time in the form of a very hungry caterpillar.

His teacher was astonished as to how he learnt the story in one go and how quickly he remembered all the references in the story. I told her that he already knew that story in a different language so he could understand it fast. I had to still read out the story to him in German and he never told how the story sounded in English.

Then one day a story telling competition was announced in his school and I prepared his favorite story with him, but this time in English. I listened to it on YouTube, showed him the video and wrote down the English words and made him say them. He very enthusiastically saw the video and then said the story for first 2 days. Then his interest vanished and he was not ready to sit with me for practice. A came to my rescue and he took T’s practice for the next 3 days. When I asked T if he can just tell me the story quickly on the day of the competition when he was getting ready for school, pat came the reply, “I will not tell you the story. I will only tell it to my teacher”. I said ok. So be it. I was not sure if he would do that. What if had stage fear or what if people surrounding him and looking at him intimated him? I wished him all the best and said bye and left him at the school.

When I went to the daycare to pick him up after school, I saw his name on the notice board as a winner in the story telling competition. I was so overjoyed! I thought as if I had won a prize. I congratulated him and hug him. This was a very small achievement, he has many more opportunities in the future, but at that time I felt very proud of him. He had mastered the story both in German and English and could tell it nicely in either languages! Kids are so sharp! He was given a book of short stories with his name written on it. Now we read a story from that book every day. Who knows one of the story in the book can become the next story for the next competition!?

Thank you Christiane Laehnemann for introducing us to the story of the very hungry caterpillar which has become forever etched in our lives. And T you make me proud and happy every single moment. You do not understand now when I say this, but maybe later you would. Thanks for coming into my life.

You can also hear and see the story here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4HI7q38VmQ