"I want to do it myself"

Building bricks

No

The bricks were going up one at a time, carefully.

The higher it got, the harder both things were — holding it steady and pushing the next one on. They started coming off.

“It keeps breaking.”

The one alongside came over and picked the fallen bricks up and tried to press them back on, and it did not go on for them either. The tower leaned.

“Shall I help?” said Teacher Yubok.

“No.”

More trying. Then the whole thing went over at once.

Teacher Yubok came back a second time, and this time they did it together — pressing each brick down until it was properly on before the next one went up.

“What is it you've made?”

Colored paper

They put it down and went to look it up

Chaewon went looking for paper, and a sheet came across. Then folding — a camera.

It did not work. Another go, and the paper creased.

Chaewon put it down, and went and opened the folding book at the camera page.

Once it had been looked at properly, the paper came back up, and help got asked for on the rest.

Then Chaewon sat looking at the finished one.

What kept it going The paper got put down, not taken away. What happened in the gap was the book — fetched and opened by the person who needed it.

Socks

From here

They were putting socks on to go out to the playground.

“I want to do it.”

Bori worked at it, hand and foot turning around each other, and the sock would not go on.

“Help, please.”

Teacher Yepark got it started, as far as the toes.

“Shall we go again from here?”

And Bori pulled it the rest of the way up.

“I did it! I did it! This is great!”

What kept it going Teacher Yepark put the sock on as far as the toes and stopped there. The hard part had been getting it started. What was left was pulling, and the pulling belonged to Bori.

Baby dolls

Help me

The diaper was one of the soft ones, with different textures on it. It got felt all over, and rubbed with a fingertip.

“It's soft.”

“Shall we change the baby's diaper?” said Teacher Yepark.

The doll went down flat. “It's done a poo.”

Then getting the diaper on. Alone, for a while.

“Help me.”

And the two of them did it together.