I’m not sure how I feel about being a once-again pri sch teacher again, but one thing’s crystal clear certain. My parenting and teaching lives have become inextricably integrated. Never have one facet of my life fed so seamlessly into the next, synergising my time and connecting random dots. Which, btw, is something an ENFP thrives on.

Wouldn’t have thought leatherback turtles live so deep in the ocean if my son hadn’t borrowed this book. Now, the sentence from the school’s Stellar text “leatherbacks are the world’s fastest reptiles and deepest divers” took on an unprecedented illuminating light for me. It’s like an Aha! moment.

When I get assigned to teach pri 4 kids in the future, I expect to regale them with tidbits about vampire squids and colossal squids and anglerfish and sperm whales and snailfish, all of which dwell in the deep and dark ocean. Gotta love the additional explanatory notes at the back. I will commit to memorising some fun facts to make my storytelling more convincing. Heck, I even have a picture of the anglerfish pasted on my Sci file because I use it to tell unsuspecting students if they know fish = gills = distinctive characteristic.

I’m glad that my son possesses an unbridled curiosity about these marine creatures. He has asked me more than once - How do leatherback turtles eat jellyfish if the latter has no bones? Also, having recently enlightened me about the existence of vampire bats and vampire crabs, he asked me if vampire squids suck animals’ blood. A fair question to ask, I think.

Ngl, being inundated with real-life pressures, I could care less about the eating habits of leatherbacks and vampire squids. (I do care that he knows that turtles = reptiles = dry scales because that’s in the syllabus haha.) Nonetheless, I will be sure to Google the answers for him tomorrow. It’s endearing that his natural curiosity overwhelms this jaded Gen X. I hope it doesn’t get crushed by our unrelenting exam-oriented system haha.

Great book to chew over with your kid!