Alfie's Sunset (From Swindon Advertiser)

Alfie's Sunset

8:48pm Tuesday 22nd September 2009

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I had a really interesting conversation with Alfie yesterday, the kind of conversation that sticks in your mind and will do so forever more. I think that the best conversations you can have with children are the ones where they show you so clearly what they are thinking and allow you a glimpse into their little minds. I have to say that this is one of the things that I miss about not working at the school at the moment. Children can teach you so much and it’s sad but inevitable that sometimes as adults we don’t allow ourselves the time to really listen.

Last night’s conversation began when we were sitting on the sofa watching a particularly beautiful sunset outside. Alfie had just had his bath and smelt all lovely and clean; he was snuggled up next to me feeling very relaxed. It’s not often that Alfie relaxes (five year old boys rarely do!) So it was extra nice.

Alfie was captivated by the beautiful red sky and the clouds, but he wanted to know where the sun had gone. I explained that it was behind the clouds and it was on the way to bed, because it was now night time and the moon would soon be coming out. He then asked if we could go and sit on a cloud! I explained to Alfie that we couldn’t sit on clouds because we would fall and this was called gravity. I told him that to go up into the clouds we would need an aeroplane.

It was at this point that the little light bulb went on inside his head; he asked if Father Christmas could bring him a parachute so that he could go up to the clouds in an aeroplane and “Fall down slowly” with his parachute. When I declared shocked that he was much too little to parachute he replied “No I’m not Mummy, I am six next and we can keep my parachute in the cupboard under the stairs”.

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