About the Author

A dedicated teacher for twenty plus years and counting!

Barbara Steel Knowles has lived in Germany, Saudi Arabia
and Cyprus and finds inspiration in lifes small moments.

Dedication
To my daughter, who changed my life and family and friends
who share it.

Barbara Steel Knowles

T

O O

O T

T O

T A L K

O L L E C T I O N

T O

O F

E A N U T

R T I C L E S

Copyright Barbara Steel Knowles

The right of Barbara Steel Knowles to be identified as author of
this work has been asserted by her in accordance with section 77
and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the
publishers.
Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this
publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims
for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British
Library.

ISBN 978 1 84963 837 1 (Paperback)

www.austinmacauley.com
First Published (2015)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd.
25 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5LB

Printed and bound in Great Britain

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Well, Im not walking down there in the

searing heat to talk to a peanut

Ive lived in Cyprus for a decade and dont want to leave; it

feels like home. Cypriot people are charming and charismatic.
They are silver-tongued charmers who can convince the
toughest cynic that black is white. It depends on your
perspective, you see. Viewed in certain lights, the reflective
surface of a black object is white. A Cypriot friend helped me
realise that.
They are philosophical and resigned to their fate, helpless
in the hands of the Gods. What can we do? They shrug and
accept storm, tempest, personal and financial crisis. Whilst
they sometimes make a half-hearted attempt to find the source
of the problem their findings are startling and unfathomable.
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The ancient freezer in an apartment we rented continually

created icebergs which decreased its storage capacity and
threatened to throw open the door. My landlord spoke to me
patiently, face contorted in earnest. The painful truth was that
I had no understanding of domestic requirements. As an
English woman who knew that intermittent defrosting is
important, I did not appreciate, as all Cypriot house wives do,
that you have to do it every other day. In this way the icebergs
are held at bay. As he left I muttered apologies for my tardy
ways and even thanked him.
During the course of ten years Ive gravitated to their way
of life although I cant lose the English habit of punctuality
which means I spend a lot of time waiting in restaurants on
my own.
Some visitors to the island find their attitudes
questionable. Things Ive grown accustomed to are a source of
amazement to them. Anja is fastidious about food and she
drives chefs wild. She wasnt prepared for our teenage
waiters reaction to blemished (or muddy; I wasnt sure)
cauliflower florets. He sighed and explained, very slowly as
you would when speaking to an alien or a foreigner, that it is a
Cypriot custom to eat all of the cauliflower; the stalk and the
flower. With a shrug of the shoulders he walked away but
MUD... my niece cried MUD? He rolled his eyeballs and
retreated into the kitchen saying What can we do. Well we
laughed till we cried, after all, what could we do.
I saw her cross swords many times over food and
nutrition. It was exhausting sometimes and I willed her to
lower her standards. Peanuts were a source of conflict once.
Oblivious to the delights of local almonds, pistachios and
walnuts, temptingly piled onto the counter, she chose a packet
of peanuts. The assistant assured her they were the freshest of
nuts. They sat in the fridge for a week and were opened one
35 degrees Celsius afternoon when I was already over heated
and irritable. They were declared soft and rancid which they
were. We debated the course of action until I tired of it and
binned them Oh, no, she cried. They are not fresh and we
must take them back. I pointed out how far wed have to
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walk and how hot it was but she was indignant and ranted on
about the dishonesty of the shop girl until Id had enough.
Well, Im not going down there in the searing heat to talk to
a peanut! I cried......and thus the book title of the small
moments of my life was born.

Gone!
What did she mean, my little daughter, when she said,
Gone!? The obvious answer was that the word means
something has disappeared just as it does in adult language.
But obvious answers are rarely the correct ones. The object
was perfectly visible to me, but she didnt believe in it. It was
transformed because it had broken. Therefore, to her, it had
gone. I notice she uses the word a lot. It also describes
something that has been put away, or when theres no space
for anymore and when the clothes are in the washing machine.
Its a mixture of what she perceives and what she believes.
She is really expressing quite a sophisticated, abstract notion
with this simple word.
Learning to talk is one of the greatest steps in child
development. As parents we delight in it. It is a deeply
moving and often hilarious experience. We have been
enjoying the first words of our daughter, now almost two
years old, for several months.
Once the first word is produced others quickly follow. Im
glad I recorded Jasmines first words since they are now in
use every day and have become unremarkable. It is when new
words are uttered that I get excited.
They might be single words but they are used as if they
were sentences. More means I want more. Daddy? with
the voice-stress on the second syllable means Where is
Daddy? Daddy repeated as he enters, Daddy!
triumphantly is There he is!
All this is pretty amazing. More astonishing is the number
of words she understands and responds to. Children
understand more words than they ever use. So do adults come
to that.
The number of words Jasmine can say increases daily. But
despite this great progress it is still noticeably child-talk.
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This is probably the cutest period of language development.

She charms us with her efforts to say bigger words. There is
real communication between us. She has actually been getting
what she wants for a long time. By gesture, facial expression
and sounds babies make their wishes very clear!
Now she can say words and is beginning to link them I
feel less like a purveyor of goodies and unpaid servant. I feel
like her companion.
I have started a diary of her language development. It is
little more than a list of words at present.
Language is the central point of the difference between
human species and all others. Words unite mankind. It is a
wonderful mechanism which provides us with some insight of
what goes on in our childs mind. Then you really start to feel
you can get to know them. They emerge as personalities with
ideas of their own.
It must be a frustrating time for a toddler trying to produce
the right words. This must be similar to experiencing inability
to exchange views in a foreign country because you dont
have the means of expression. This has happened to me lots of
times. Ive had the desire and will to communicate, but have
lacked the means.
No wonder then toddlers sometimes express their
frustration in tantrums or other antisocial behaviour.
Spoken words can be used positively or to make negative
judgments. We have to beware of treating children as curtly as
we do some adults. A derisory remark and frequent attempts
to correct pronunciation or grammar will make a child feel
hurt or angry and less inclined to try to express themselves
verbally.
Toddlers dont think before they open their mouths, but
parents should. We shouldnt shout at our children, but we do
a bit of volume helps to grab a toddlers attention. The
trouble is that shouting stirs them up. On the other hand, if the
controlled form of communication some parents use with their
children makes me cringe. They talk to their children with
every word carefully considered and articulated. Its as if they
are giving elocution lessons. Toddlers are so enthusiastic and
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fun-loving, they need grown-ups around them to behave the

same way, even if it does mean we go over the top
occasionally and shout.
I used to think I knew a lot about young children when I
was teaching. Then we had Jasmine and I realised how little I
knew.
One of the most important things Ive learned is to bring
her up confidently. We cant help noticing how other people
do things and the media presents an odd slant on reality,
promoting everyday attempts to find perfection. Needless to
say nothing is perfect, but you can feel extremely vulnerable,
matching your own efforts against other people.
Above all let me enjoy her. Time goes by so quickly. This
toddler will slip from this stage to the next before I know it.
Toddlers are so full of life and energy, so full of fun, innocent
and imaginative, its one of the most enjoyable stages of
childhood. You have to see it as the terrific twos not the
terrible twos as some child-experts name this stage. They
have more power than sense thats for sure.
We have to recognise this, apply on own common sense.
Then we have to go with the flow. If we are to find the
strength to provide the 24 hours a day attention they demand
we have to develop more relaxed attitudes.
One thing is for sure, time with our children will soon be
gone. Children are fun lets enjoy them.

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