Sunday, November 09, 2008

Sweet Moment in the Parking Lot of Walmart

After we checked out, Pamela and I were in the parking lot, walking to the car. We bumped into an acquaintance of mine and her little three-year-old boy. He attends my very short, in-the-spirit-of-Charlotte Mason music lesson for preschoolers every Sunday. He loves the drum and plays with a very steady rhythm. I told him that I missed him last Sunday, and his mother told me he had a stomach virus. Then, the coolest thing happened:

Pamela overheard the conversation and said rather stridently, "You're not sick!"

In my typical declarative response, I pointed to the boy and said, "He was sick on Sunday. But, you're not sick."

We reached their car and were winding up our conversation. Then, Pamela turned to me, pointed to him, and asked, "How does the boy feel?"

I told her, "I don't know. You could ask him a 'How do' question?" I scaffolded her syntax because I wanted her to succeed in this interaction with a total stranger (she has never met this little boy).

She looked at him, pointed, and asked, "How do you feel?"

Then, he looked up at her and said, "Fine!"

Then, his mom prompted him to say thanks, so Pamela thanked him. LOL. But, then when he waved good-bye to her, she waved back and said, "Bye!"

Isn't that sweet?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a glorious moment! You did a beautiful job of scaffolding without robbing her of the accomplishment. :-)

Happy Elf Mom (Christine) said...

There's so much here. Pamela has a very organized mind and here you go categorizing questions and helping her pull out the right "file" to use in conversations. Brilliant!

I hate Wal-Mart, though. I find myself going there more often than I'd like. Stupid economy.