Kid and Caboodle

Today we took A.J. to a trial Mandarin Chinese class.  The class is set up like a regular preschool class; children learn through playing games, singing songs, doing art projects and other fun activities.  After the trial class, we asked A.J. what he thought about his experience.  He said he had fun and would like to do it again.  The teacher said A.J. would fit in with the class just fine even though it is already the third week of the summer term, so we happily registered A.J. for the rest of the term.  Since we were there already, we decided to register him for the full 2008-2009 academic year as well.  Hope this works out!

This means, of course, that Chris and I will have to start studying Mandarin again so we can keep up with our son ….

A.J. also expressed interest in taking tae kwon do classes recently, so we’ve signed him up at a place where many of his classmates go.  I’m wondering whether Chris and I also should take some tae kwon do classes so we can defend ourselves from A.J.’s new repertoire of punches and kicks ….

A.J.’s bike riding also has inspired Chris to buy a proper bike rack for my car and to look into getting his own bike cleaned and repaired.  I should probably get my bike checked out at the same time.  Maybe we can all do some family bike rides and thereby get exercise while enjoying ourselves!

It’s amazing the influence that little kid has on our lives ….

While riding his bike yesterday, my son rode directly into the path of a moving car.

Fortunately the car stopped in time to avoid hitting him.

I’m still upset about what happened.

How can I keep something like this from happening again? My husband and I spoke to our son very sternly about being careful when crossing the street, but A.J. just keeps complaining that he didn’t see the car. My husband keeps telling him that “it’s the car you don’t see that will hit you,” but our son does not seem to understand. He just continues to protest that he was not at fault; he didn’t see the car.

What can I do? I don’t want to take away A.J.’s bike or force him to only play inside until he’s older; that would drive us both crazy. Standing in the middle of the street trying to block oncoming traffic is impractical. Driving A.J. and his bike to a park so he can ride there is not really feasible either. There is a reason we bought a house at the end of a cul-de-sac — to minimize incidents like this.

For now I have told A.J. to stay within the circle of the cul-de-sac and to triple-check before crossing the road at the top. If he disobeys, I guess that’s when I’ll have to consider tougher measures.