writer: Liu Xingchun, Teacher at Liangping Kindergarten  

During art class, the teacher gave each group a new box of paintbrushes. The children sat around the square table and couldn’t wait to grab their favorite colors.  

Lili immediately chose the red brush and drew a big sun with rays shining on the earth. When she tried to paint flowers on the grass, however, she noticed that the yellow brush had been taken by Qiqi beside her. "Qiqi, I need yellow to draw flowers. Can you share it for a moment?" Lili asked anxiously. Qiqi clutched the yellow brush and shook her head. "No, I haven’t finished drawing my banana yet!" The two refused to compromise, their faces turning red as they held onto the brush.  

Seeing their argument, Ms. Liu walked over and knelt between them. "Remember the story about the squirrels sharing chestnuts yesterday?" She picked up the red and yellow brushes and mixed them to create orange on paper. "Look! When red and yellow cooperate, they make new colors."  

Qiqi blinked and pushed the yellow brush toward Lili. "Let’s take turns. You draw three flowers first." Lili smiled and placed her red brush in the center. "You can use red to draw bows on your bananas later!"  

Inspired, the other children also shared their brushes. Blue traveled across multiple drawings, becoming skies and rivers; green was passed around to paint leaves and grass. When the class ended, every artwork bloomed with blended colors, like a spring hill covered in flowers.  

The brushes had "quarreled," but the children discovered the joy of sharing. As Lili put away the brushes, she gazed at the vibrant classroom artworks and grinned.  

Project introduction:

Preschool of the Future (POF) Liangpin is funded by Mr. and Mrs. Koo Tihua.  The POF Qiaojia (County) project takes preschool education as the breakthrough point, to provide a safe, comfortable learning and playing environment for children in remote rural areas. The curriculum focuses on health, language, society, science and art, so that preschool-age children living in rural areas can get all-round development in morality, intelligence, physique and aesthetics. The project focuses on two modules: upgrading classroom environment and teaching and playing aids, and improving teachers' professional ability. At the same time, the project supervises and manages the daily operation of the preschool, assists teachers in training parents, creates a safe and healthy learning and living environment for those children, thereby achieving the joint education of family and kindergarten. Quality preschool education provided by POF will make the rural children fully prepared for entering the primary school.

The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily those of the donor.