Agnes: What is a teacher?

Harriet: Well … a grown up who teaches kids how to spell their names. Like this: H-A-R-R-I-E-T. And they give them a stamp.

A: What is learning?

H: Well … I learn about dragons. You teach them how to fly … Like that [points to words I am writing] says ‘dragon’ and ‘fly’.

A: What else have you learnt about?

H: Books. My animal books. I’ll show you [brings over ‘The Human Body’]. Here’s a heavy book about bones. The book teaches blood cells how to go ‘beep beep’ and fight something if you are hurt by ants or sick or when you bump yourself. I learn how to eat and talk and how to make my bones walk when I am going home … [When I was a baby] I cannot walk. I need to learn how to read. I could rip things. But I have big bones now. I learned about sniffing flowers. I learned not to rip things. I learned not to be a baby. If I play, it makes me happy.

A: What did mummy and daddy teach you?

H: Mummy and Daddy taught me how to walk and smell things and listen and sit in my own chair. And about my different bones.

A: Who else teaches you?

H: My teachers – Mrs Magda and Miss Jess [at childcare]. Sometimes I say, ‘I need to go to the toilet’ to my teachers. They teach me how to do that. And I learnt to say to dragons, Don’t eat me, don’t eat me’.

A: What do you still need to learn?

H: I need to learn how to eat tomatoes. I don’t eat them now.

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