Park Visits…

We regularly visit a nearby park and many fun things happen while we are there. Most of the times, I’m still thinking about the fun stuff when we walk back home while Sakura tries to get hold of my hair but her hands already have a few strands. There is this 4 year old boy who always enters the park after we do. It can’t be a coincidence every time, it should be intentional that he enters the park a few minutes later. He speaks to me everyday and gives me some information about the park and nothing else. Yesterday he said ‘there is rain water clogged under that swing’. The day before he said ‘the grass in this park has grown so much’. The day before that he said ‘the grass in this park has snakes. I saw one’. So everyday I wait for him to come, give me some information after which he goes away. There are days when I have tried to strike a conversation with him – ‘so are you done with school today?’ and he just ‘nods’.

Sakura and I occupy the same swing. It’s so kind of the caretakers they never ask me to not use a swing designed for children. I guess they know that Sakura can’t ride on her own as yet, so they must be fine with me giving her company. The first time we were on the swing Sakura sat all cuddled in my lap. She was looking at the soil underneath and I observed that her hands moved slowly onto the sides as if trying to locate something. A few minutes later, I saw her holding on to the swing. A few days passed and I knew she had become very comfortable with the swing as she knew instinctively how to hold on to the swing. This is the difference I feel between training a neural network and teaching a child. The former only does what you have trained it for but a child can do things with no training or coaching, it in fact can apply its own principles. She moves her legs just the way I do just to add to the momentum of the swing. Last month, I was teaching her how to hit the mattress using her palms and observe the kind of sound produced. A few days later I saw her hitting some of the toys the same way and trying to see what kind of sounds they produced. To my astonishment, she is hitting my arms and face the same way as she hits those toys and is stunned that no interesting sound is being produced. What a child may be thinking is pretty interesting to imagine and people say there is so much not known in the area of Child psychology.

For now, I’m taking Sakura to the verandah where she notices all kinds of vehicles passing by. She is either smiling at people who are on their bicycles or is calling those who are speeding up in their cars.

Have a nice weekend.