Davit Bleyan suggests passing on to autonomy: “Let him and his kindergarten group mates stay in the group room and pre-school teachers Ms Karine and Ms Meline leave the room. “Where should they go?” I am asking. “Let them go to work with you”, he answers. “I would rather stay in the School-kindergarten with my share of Bleyan, with Tatev and with my group mates…” Armine Abrahamyan doesn’t agree to that. I don’t have Karine and Meline’s opinion: let them response as they are my diary readers.

Will Davit discuss his offer with his sister-headmaster Tatev? We will see… I think his  justifications are sufficient: they will do everything on their own. They will  clean, go to bed, use the WC, play, lay and then clear off the table, do some gardening.

“We are grown-ups, father, there are no little ones in our group… The little ones are in the other group, we do not cry. I have got good group mates” says Davit, and decisively leaves the room with his group mates’ hair fasteners in his hand. Our day is going on like this. Follow it in my diary.

Lilit Bleyan,  my eldest daughter, has created a mess on the Internet by publishing this lovely photo of mine…

I am about 25 here, and Lilit is almost 2 years old… I was thin and tall and had long hair… It has always been very hard for me to go to the barber’s. When I did go, it was an event.. I don’t like to do it now either. I always go to the same barber. His name is Israel. Did you notice? I have had my hair cut lately.

Lilit could already speak when she was 10-11 months old, and her speech was fluent when she was one. She used to retell the works by Tumanyan and Khnkoyan, compose songs and poems. We could hardly manage to put them down on paper. Here is one …

Song

I wish a button appeared,
A very small, tiny button,
We will press it, and anything, which we want, will appear,
If we want we will have everything.
If I want I will create a stream in the room,
I will have a puppy if I want very much,
A puppy and a small boat.

Chorus

But if some day, a bad day
I lose that tiny button,
I will not have whatever I want,
But at least a puppy I will have.

I have kept it carefully in my archive. I used to visit all the exhibitions with Lilit: she was a clever and attentive visitor to all the fine art exhibitions… I liked to go for a walk with Lilit very much. She used to be careful, sensible, curious and always asked the most unexpected questions and gave answers in the same way… What a pity, I didn’t keep a diary then to write down what she said: I was too young then. So many live stories, pedagogical talks wiped away.

We are having Gianni Rodari- Ghazaros Aghayan Review in our family and are going to give an application for the Eco Tour Review.

It is a rainy night… Suddenly Davit wakes up and calls me… I am working in the next room. I come up to him and take a seat by his bed, and he begins talking to me.
“Tell me about the Tailless Fox…”
“It is raining, and the Tailless Fox is asleep in its lair.”
“How did it drink the milk? How did it find out that the old woman had milked the cow? How did it see…?”

No, I can’t escape. I begin telling the tale. After each word Davit stops me and asks endless questions. He wants to know the etymology of words. What does it mean? Why…?  I want to cut it short, but Davit keeps me beside him for a long time…. And it is still raining. I found the way out: we are having Gianni Rodari Review… and I begin inventing a story. The field says, “Fetch me some water…”  and the fox thinks, “They have made up their minds to fool me. They will send me to and fro and won’t give me my tail, and my friends won’t wait for me. I will be blackmailed all over the world being tailless; mskh.am will be filled with news about the Tailless fox. How can I get water from water fountains in Yerevan? They aren’t turned on yet. And the Hrazdan River is so polluted. Iveta Janazyan with her students, Vahe Papoyan have presented such unbelievable scenes in their films made for the Eco Tour. I will turn to God with my request. Let our Lord send much rain to water the fields, let there be much grass, and the cows will graze as much as they want so that they can’t find any excuse and give the milk they have promised. I will take the milk to the old woman.” So the fox is praying for rain…

Rain, rain come down,
Grow wheat and barley,
Grow flowers, green grass,
Sweep away dust, clean the air.
Rain, rain come down,
Be good to all of us.

Raphael Patkanyan

It is just in time to confess that Lilit helped me to discover Gianni Rodari’s pedagogical masterpiece, The Grammar of Creative Imagination. In the 1979-1980s when Lilit was 1-2 years old, my Godchild Suren Khachatryan presented me the book The grammar of fantasy. introduction to the art of inventing stories by Gianni Rodari, and with Lilit’s help I assimilated Rodari’s pedagogy and  knacks of inventing stories. Later I offered the Educomplex publishing house “Shaghik” to translate it into Armenian, and still later, when I was the Minister of Education of RA, I handed the copies of that book to the public primary school teachers of Armenia as a present. I didn’t care much whether I was thanked or not thanked for that.

Davit’s mother Armine reads that book to Davit until he falls asleep. They nestle in the small bed and begin reading, and while working in the next room, I often overhear various stories about the Sun, the Moon, the Earth and stars and Mother’s exclamations full of delight …
“Father, come and see, listen to what Davit is asking…”

• Why is the Sun always round, but the Moon always changes: now and then it gets round and slice shaped.
• Do we live on the Planet Earth? Is the Earth round? How can it be that I walk on a round thing?
• Why does the Sun have rays and the Moon doesn’t? How does the Moon give light and then it isn’t seen?
• How does the Sun bring morning every day and how does the Moon bring evening?
• When it is evening and the Moon comes out, where does the Sun go? Why doesn’t it stay in the sky to play with the Moon?
• Why are the Moons just one and the stars are so many?

Davit hasn’t forgotten the physical exercises with chairs in the School-garden. In the evening he brought all the kitchen chairs to the sitting-room and adjusted the table-sofa… Our sitting-room became a real gym. Our hero does gym-exercises with pleasure for a long time.

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