Chopsticks

We have often jokingly said that my son must have been Chinese in a previous life. He will happily eat plain rice every day of the week, his favourite meal is rice and baked beans and he never tires of rice, rice, rice.

My sister-in-law brought the children back chopsticks from her visit to the States (as well as assorted, astoundingly cheap toys from Walmart). Now we are sure of it. Yesterday evening they decided to try out eating their supper with chopsticks, never having used or seen chopsticks being used in their life before. My son picked them up, exactly right and just started eating his rice and chicken, as if to the manner born. We were mildly gob-smacked! My six year old picked it up quite quickly with a bit of trial and error, and an extremely protracted supper ensued, with every grain of rice painstakingly cleared from plates, then a bowl of cut up apple embarked upon, then more grated apple - all with chopsticks. It was an hour later that they were at last persuaded to finish eating and go to bed, taking their chopsticks with them...who needs toys, you get more mileage out of a cheap pair of chopsticks!