A twist on a classic nursery song.

We began singing the song with no change to the lyrics, you know that "One little two, little three, little Indians...." Not a politically correct song in today's climate but I grew up on it. So I happily taught it to my son.

Then we twigged it a bit to adapt to our needs better, instead of counting little Indians we counted little tractors. Fortunately or unfortunately we live within an industrial area and the Bang Na Trat highway is figuratively right before our doorstep. So we've got trucks of all assortments, construction vehicles of all sizes and types whooshing by us as we drive to and fro.

Taufik loves almost all types of vehicles, his current favourite being the coach bus and airplanes. One day I began singing the tractor song a little differently to suit to the tune of the song better. It went like this, "7, big 8, big 9, big tractors. 10 big tactors on the road. Yeah!" Taufik getting the idea after twice singing it this way, said "Something else Mommy!" And so we sang about "10 little taxis on the road, yeah!" Then it went to aeroplanes, at his own initiative. He sang to me one day to my surprise and delight, "7 large, 8 large, 9 large airplanes, 10 large airplanes in the ......(he paused for a little while struggling, knowing that airplanes are not found on the roads)...in the skies, yeah!" I gave him a resounding applause. And urged him on with fishes, which he sang, "10 little fishes in the water, yeah!"

Before we sang, we would decide on a subject matter, he would say, "What about....tuk tuks?" and then I would ask him, "are they large or little, big or small, huge or tiny?" And we would sing according to the answer he gave me.

And so it went on and on and on, just about everything was sang about. I am astounded at how well he categorized things. 10 bulldozers on the sand pit, 10 pencils on the table, 10 spiders in the playground, 10 frogs on the lily pad...and on and on and on.

Through this song he learnt so much, he learnt how to count, he learnt that different things and animals had different sizes, that they belong in certain places and in different categories. It is truly amazing how much he has learnt.

I thought I should jot this one down cause it's an educational gem that Taufik and I discovered and created together. Yeah!