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Translator: Silavin
“Good morning.” Su Bai raised his hand to gesture for them to sit down.
He scanned the people in the Teepee, seeing various races. Some had cat ears, some had horns, some with feathered tails, and so on. However, they all had one thing in common – their faces were dirty and their hair was messy. [They really do look like Egg Stealing Monkeys. They also don’t seem to be very well-fed. Most of them are bone thin and weak.]
“Do you know why I called you here today?” Su Bai asked in a deeper than usual tone. His first step was to make sure all these children knew what they were doing, rather than blindly following orders.
“We know. We’re here to learn how to read and write,” The children answered in unison.
Su Bai nodded with satisfaction and said, “Take out the wooden boxes I’ve just given you.”
“Shaman, we all have them, but they don’t. Should we share some with them?” A child with dog ears pointed to the back.
The last time he had Uncle Gu Mu make twenty-four wooden boxes. Thus, there were not any for children from the other Tribes.
With the sudden increase in children, there were not enough sand trays to go around.
Su Bai raised an eyebrow and nodded. “Okay. Two of you can share one, and give some to them.”
He felt a bit comforted inwardly. Although the primitive Tribe seemed very barbaric, their hearts were the purest. At least, these children were genuinely thinking of others.
“Yes,” The children nodded.
“Go prepare some fine sand,” Su Bai instructed Qing Mu.
“Yes,” Qing Mu nodded.
Su Bai stood at the front of the classroom and said, “Today I’m going to teach you the ‘characters’ you’ll often use in daily life.”
The children all looked confused, just nodding mechanically.
Su Bai sighed inwardly, thinking, [These furry children are too used to being rowdy. It might be a bit difficult to get them to quietly learn the characters right now.]
A few minutes later, Qing Mu prepared plenty of fine sand and said, “Shaman, the sand is ready.”
“Okay. Just pour it evenly into the boxes. Don’t pour too much, just a thin layer is enough,” Su Bai instructed.
“Yes,” Qing Mu carried the wooden bucket towards the children.
A few minutes later, all the wooden boxes were filled with sand.
Yu Ying tilted her head and asked in confusion, “Shaman, why are we pouring sand into the wooden boxes?”
“This is called a sand tray. It is for practising how to write. After writing, it can be restored to its original state and be used repeatedly,” Su Bai explained.
“I see,” Yu Ying nodded thoughtfully.
Su Bai stood up straight and solemnly said, “Now, I’ll teach you the most basic numbers, used for counting things.”
He wrote the Arabic Numerals (modern digits of 1-9), one to ten on a wooden board with charcoal, turning to face the children.
Su Bai had originally thought of writing on the sand tray for everyone to see, but if he stood up with the sand tray, the characters would scatter. Even if he wrote on a sand tray and made everyone crowd around to see, it would waste too much time if they needed to go back and forth to check.
After much consideration, he decided to write on a wooden board, using a large charcoal. This would be best for displaying the digits to them.
“Shaman, are these symbols for counting things?” A little girl with ram horns asked.
The other children also looked curious, seeing such symbols for the first time. They could not help but be intrigued.
Su Bai nodded, quite satisfied with what that child had asked. Asking questions showed they had a desire to learn.
He handed the wooden board to Qing Mu to hold, then put his hands behind his back and explained, “Now, take out your sand trays and write on them following what I’ve written, step by step in order.”
The reason for teaching numbers first was because they were simple, and used daily. They were the best for beginners to learn, and were not too difficult.
Of course, pinyin would be taught later. For now, it was enough to let them know how to write commonly used characters.
As for pinyin, character formation, or sentence making, that would come later.
“Yes.” The children were all eager to try.
The sand trays were all placed on the table, with two furry children sharing one tray, each on one side mimicking the characters on the wooden board.
The fox eared girl and the cow horned girl were also eager to try, but unfortunately there were no more sand trays. So, they could only watch the furry children in longing.
Su Bai noticed that the two looked very eager to try, and smiled, “When you go back in the evening, you can practise with the charcoal. That way, you’ll learn faster.”
“Yes!” The two nodded enthusiastically.
Su Bai put his hands behind his back and started walking among the children, wanting to see how they were writing.
The more he looked, the more he wanted to laugh. The numbers written by them were all crooked and twisted, looking very much like crawling caterpillars.
“When you write, try to be more steady. Don’t let your hand shake, and look carefully at what’s written on the wooden board,” Su Bai called out.
Some of the children were not even writing Arabic Numerals anymore. Not only were the characters slanted, some had turned into strange symbols.
Su Bai crouched in front of one child, took the sand tray, and said, “I’ll write once for you to see. Watch carefully how it’s done.”
He demonstrated on the sand tray for the child, writing very slowly to ensure they could see clearly.
“Do you understand now?” Su Bai asked gently.
“I understand, thank you Shaman,” the child nodded in thanks, taking back the sand tray and starting to copy.
A few minutes later, after checking around, Su Bai found they were all writing quite well, so he started teaching more. Within an hour, he had gradually taught them how to write from one to ten.
“That’s all for today’s lesson. When you go back in the evening, you need to continue practising,” Su Bai reminded them.
“Shaman, what if we don’t have enough sand trays?” A child asked, curious.
Su Bai blinked thoughtfully and said, “In the evening, you can find an empty space and write with tree branches on the ground. It’s the same. You’ll have the sand trays ready by tomorrow.”
He planned to have Uncle Gu Mu make more, as there would likely be more people joining the Tribe in the future.
Besides this, he silently added papermaking to his agenda. The importance of paper had suddenly become self-evident.
“Yes!” The children said in unison.
“Next time, remember to raise your hand before asking a question. You can continue practising now,” Su Bai instructed.
“Understood, Shaman,” the furry children responded again.
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