While learning to ride his bike Connor would stop passers by with a friendly "Excuse me!" Folks out for a walk in the park tend to be a forgiving bunch, when it comes to kids. Or so I found out.
Connor would then go on to say something like "Look, I can pedal!" followed by "Okay, gotta go!"
The people would chuckle, I would explain he just learned how to ride. Then we would head off down the path. After about the fifth group, I decided this ritual pattern is not in the best interest of Connor, bike riding, park walkers and myself. So I cautioned him to just ride and say "good afternoon" This worked much better then the staccato start and stopping.
His cheery good afternoon was met with many happy returns, except for the grunting of the teens who appeared to resent walking and daylight and the world in general...
So here is the conundrum. Connor needs to learn to engage in back and forth conversation to relate idea's, concepts and information. So if he is in distress we can ask him "What happened" and have him respond "I fell and banged my head."
There is nothing malicious about Connor. We prompt him and praise him for his observations. What to do when his correct observations lack 'correctness'.
During our second ride as we approached a couple, Connor noted the woman and informed her that she had a baby in her stomach and she was a "big fat lady". I corrected him (we have been attempting to rid the phrase 'big fat'), I apologized and explained his condition. She was gracious enough but damage done.
So Connor was partially correct in his observation, but not in a way that is polite. Honesty and truth is good. Moderation and restraint does need appropriate application.
Now to teach that....
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