Rankin Inlet (July 31/06) - Supervising children is extremely demanding work, but, at times, it's priceless.

One never knows when a child is going to say or do something that's downright hilarious.

Childcare workers are there to witness youngsters' antics each weekday. In Rankin Inlet, Janet Hodgson never gets tired of a little boy who turns to her and says, "Bye, sweetie," as he heads out the door at the end of the day.

"I think it's rather funny," said a chuckling Hodgson, assistant manager of Kataujaq Day Care in Rankin Inlet. "I'm 52."

And she's happily married. Sorry, little guy.

Asked how often the kids make her laugh, Meekai Duval, supervisor of Precious Children's Daycare in Pangnirtung, replied, "Every day."

It's the unexpected that tickles the funny bone, she said. For example, she remembers a time when a one-year-old year-old just beginning to grasp verbal skills blurted out, "There's a mosquito in here."Then there are the misunderstandings. At Pairivik Child Care Centre in Iqaluit, a teacher trying to recall how one girl spelled her name asked if it began with a K or a C. The little girl, concentrating on first letters, responded, "It's ABC," remembered assistant daycare director Jan Whitworth with a giggle.

Proof that kids are like sponges, absorbing what they hear, comes from Danielle Budgell, manager of Kids on the Beach daycare in Iqaluit. When one of the tykes there showed no interest in his lunch, a concerned teacher asked why he didn't have an appetite.

"Oh, because I have heartburn," was his reply, Budgell said.

Do you think that's something he picked up from dad or grandpa?

Budgell and her co-workers also savour being serenaded daily by a youngster - but the tunes he chooses aren't by The Wiggles or Raffi. No, he belts out Johnny Cash, and he apparently knows Walk the Line and Ring of Fire very well.

"I think there's a future there," she said of his flourishing vocal career.