Dispute: Apple vs. Ball
One year and five days.
This is when Mara and I had our first real conversation. Our very first disagreement as well.
We were driving home from daycare and I had brought out one of those books with one object on each page. For the past week, Mara had been saying things like "up", "aaah-pun" (apple), "baa" (ball), "bye-bye", "wohh" (roll, for the balls rolling). We were at the page that so conveniently places a colorful ball and a green apple next to each other.
"That's a ball", Mommy points at the ball.
Mara silently acknowledges with her eyes.
"This is an apple", I point at the next page.
"Aah-pun!" Mara proudly exercises her new skill, pointing at the apple.
I wait for her to turn the page as usual, but it doesn't happen. She is still looking. Her finger moves to point at the round green apple on the page: "Baa!".
I am puzzled. Technically, she is right, an apple is round like a ball.
"This is a ball", I point at the other page. "And this is an apple."
Mara looks up and down, points at the ball and says "Aah-pun!". Then she looks at me curiously, waiting.
This went on for several more rounds. Mara clearly has a different point of view than mine, which if she were able to speak more articulately would be something like:
"Well, if you think that's an apple, then this must be an apple too. No? then if you call that a ball, maybe you will call this a ball. No. They are both apples. This one is a ball? Hrm."
I don't think I've ever wanted so much to get another person to understand my point of view, yet I felt like I had so few good arguments to bring in support of my statements.
We were looking at flat drawings, both round. You can't say one bounces and the other is edible, because you can't do either of those things with the drawings themselves.
I resorted to showing her the little stem on the apple, which the ball didn't have. I think it sort of works.
There's still some confusion going on, here's Mara arguing her point (treating two apples like balls):
This is when Mara and I had our first real conversation. Our very first disagreement as well.
We were driving home from daycare and I had brought out one of those books with one object on each page. For the past week, Mara had been saying things like "up", "aaah-pun" (apple), "baa" (ball), "bye-bye", "wohh" (roll, for the balls rolling). We were at the page that so conveniently places a colorful ball and a green apple next to each other.
"That's a ball", Mommy points at the ball.
Mara silently acknowledges with her eyes.
"This is an apple", I point at the next page.
"Aah-pun!" Mara proudly exercises her new skill, pointing at the apple.
I wait for her to turn the page as usual, but it doesn't happen. She is still looking. Her finger moves to point at the round green apple on the page: "Baa!".
I am puzzled. Technically, she is right, an apple is round like a ball.
"This is a ball", I point at the other page. "And this is an apple."
Mara looks up and down, points at the ball and says "Aah-pun!". Then she looks at me curiously, waiting.
This went on for several more rounds. Mara clearly has a different point of view than mine, which if she were able to speak more articulately would be something like:
"Well, if you think that's an apple, then this must be an apple too. No? then if you call that a ball, maybe you will call this a ball. No. They are both apples. This one is a ball? Hrm."
I don't think I've ever wanted so much to get another person to understand my point of view, yet I felt like I had so few good arguments to bring in support of my statements.
We were looking at flat drawings, both round. You can't say one bounces and the other is edible, because you can't do either of those things with the drawings themselves.
I resorted to showing her the little stem on the apple, which the ball didn't have. I think it sort of works.
There's still some confusion going on, here's Mara arguing her point (treating two apples like balls):
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