Piya's Perspective

This past weekend, the weather was so gorgeous that I took advantage of the weather and stayed outside Sunday afternoon.  However, rather than being productive and raking the leaves in my backyard, Simeon requested a trip to the park.  He grabbed his bat[1] and ball and we headed across the street.

Simeon has pretty good hand-eye coordination, so after a couple of hits, I decided to add some complexity – hit the ball, then run and touch the slide.  After a few successes, I took a look around and realized the shape of the playground area and the extra large rocks in each corner was perfect for the next step.  We walked around the perimeter and found first, second and third bases.  We did another trip around with me asking where next and him responding correctly.  When we got to third base, he would point to the starting point and respond ‘go back’.

After the third or fourth time, I changed terminology on him. 

“Ok, Simeon, where do we go next?”
[pointing] “go back!”
“Yeah. Go home.  Run home.”

At this point, he stops dead and with an upset/whiny voice says, “no…I don’t want to go home.” 

And then I realize the confusion. 

After a bit of explaining that the starting point is called ‘home plate’ and reassuring him we weren’t going home yet, he resumed his happiness and continued running.  Future references to ‘go home!’ were well received and I made sure to say ‘go back to the house’ when it was time to leave.

[1] an orange stick he got from a garage sale that makes noise[2] when you turn it upside down and back.

[2] correction – made noise.  the force of one of his swings early on caused the noise-maker piece to break out of its cage and fly a few feet away.  awww…shucks.  even better that he doesn’t seem to mind, as it still works just fine as a baseball bat.