i was thinking about quitting even before starting as a CHAI tutor due to concerns about coping with volunteering and taking 5 classes at the same time... but a day at the center today made me change my mind. i mean i really want to stay on and see how it goes. it's not that i was particularly drawn to the adorable autistic kids; in fact, i really wasn't. it was mainly because through observation sessions today i could really see for myself that there was some 'method' behind interacting with kids. the very friendly behaviorist tried to explain the kids' behavior and how tutors ought to facilitate/encourage the kids to interact...prior to this, when i did play with kids, i was just totally random and didn't even think that there were so many cues we could pick up... the observation skills, patience and sensitivity required of a tutor convinced me that there's perhaps a lot i could learn (not for any particular purpose, but learning for the sake of learning?) but it's seriously tiring! from observing my own housemates do parenting... CHAI tutors engage the autistic kids... i have concluded that parenting really isn't an easy task, esp if you want to do it well. really pei4 fu2 all those parents out there... which makes me wonder how it was like for my parents...haha but my mum alwyas likes to 'boast' how guai1 my sis and i were when we were little.... but now that i think about it, i must have been a little mystery if i were this quiet little kid walking around, staring blankly at ppl when they ask me stuff... =P er, just kidding.