"Bull's-Eye"

We all know how much fun young kiddos have with throwing, kicking, and catching balls. They love the cause and effect aspect of their actions and develop essential hand-eye coordination for later developmental tasks. We also all know that the surest way to get a repeated action out of a kiddo is to praise the child with encouraging words and smiles. Sometimes; however, one responds to undesired actions with a laugh and a smile. Recently, an 22 month old little boy was throwing bean bag balls back and forth with his mom. All was going well until one of the boy's throws went a little wide and beaned me right in between my eyes. Both mom and I burst out with laughter and huge grins. Of course, the little boy interpreted this as praise and proceeded to throw the bean bag ball right between my eyes again! I never knew 22 months brought with it such great aim and precision! After hiding our smiles the second time, I followed mom's lead as she instructed her son to throw the ball on the floor. She told him throwing it at people's faces hurts them. Her son then threw the ball on the floor. It was so wonderful to see mom give her son positive directions instead of constantly telling him no. Mom and I both applauded his following of directions...well, after I rubbed by head first!
- Tara