K. Decides Literacy May be a Necessity

Sometimes, we really are dopes. Today was one of those days. Our family CEO checked the baseball schedule and saw that T.'s baseball conflicted with piano tonight. He double checked, just to be sure, then called to let the teacher know that T. would have to miss his lesson. We ate an early dinner, got our little athlete into costume, and drove off to the town twenty minutes away where the game was to take place. Only, neither of the teams playing at the ball field was ours. Ed asked the coaches there if there was another field in town where our team might be, and, going with their suggestions, we went hunting for our ball game. No luck. We drove back home, only to see K.'s team playing at the field across from our house. We dashed in and got K. into her ball playing gear. We also took another look at those schedules on the refrigerator. Ooops. K.'s game, obviously, was tonight, and T.'s is Tomorrow night. We apologized to the kids, and K., not wanting us to feel bad about the mess-up, told us that she is going to learn to read right away, so that she can read us the schedules (I can still read stories to her, but she will keep track of the real world stuff). T. was pleased to get to play with some friends at the park, and K. hit the ball! The coach always pitches three or four balls at the kids before letting them hit off the "t," and K. hit a real, coach-pitched ball! Admittedly, if the traditional rules about balls hit beyond the baselines being considered foul were followed in our t-ball, K.'s hit would have been foul, but we are just thrilled when the kids hit the ball, anywhere, so it was just fine. In fact, K. was so dazzled with having hit the ball that she wouldn't run. Finally, the coach picked her up and, holding her in front of him, trotted her to first. She couldn't stop smiling, and when she got back to the bench, she told everyone, "I hit the ball!" In spite of our dopiness, it was a great evening.