I don’t know about you but I find little kids (by this I mean, pre-teens) fascinating.  They are adorable – most of the time.  I don’t have kids of my own but I have a nephew, 8 3/4 – when they’re that young, every month is important when stating their age – and he is a constant source of amusement and entertainment for the family.  It’s a good thing that he loves being the centre of attention because as the only grandchild in the family, he has taken centre stage since the day he was born.

I believe adults, particularly those without children, often under-estimate the intelligence of children. My nephew made it into the finals of his school’s public speaking competition for the second year in a row and I went along to show my support.  The kids were required to write their own speech that was to last three minutes and were given the following topics to choose from:

• goals are good
• manners matter
• if I could rule the world
• laughter

There were two groups of competitors: Stage 2 for 3rd and 4th graders and Stage 3 for 5th and 6th graders. My nephew was runner-up in the Stage 2 group.

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