Little Lawyer

Most little kids learning to kick and blow bubbles love pretending they are motor boats. The louder their bubbles and faster their kick the faster the motor boat goes. Their smiles and laughter are contagious, so I have really enjoyed teaching this part of swim lessons. When the little tykes stop blowing bubbles or kicking I stop them in middle of the water and exclaim, "Oh no! The motor boat ran out of gas--kick hard and blow bubbles!" Of course they immedietely do so--most of the time. The same routine happened while teaching a little 3-year-old this afternoon. Apparently, he wasn't in a good mood and didn't feel like doing hardly anything except getting out of the pool. Playing motor boat got him kicking, smiling and blowing bubbles earlier this week, so I decided to play that again. Half-way across the pool he stopped kicking and blowing bubbles. With a sly little smile and giggle he exclaimed, "The motor boat ran out of gas." The first time that was cute. But, the other 2,000 times were really annoying. That little-tyke brain had discovered a "loop hole." After about three times I became determined, looked him in the face and said, "Nope! The motor boat didn't run out of gas. I put so much gas in that it couldn't run out ... Kick! Blow bubbles!" When his mom came to the side of the pool with his towel she remarked at the large amount of patience I had, but what went through my mind was that this brilliant little mind should grow up to become a lawyer!