“Why were you running all of the way across the field by the road?”

“I saw a butterfly and followed it.”

 In order to explain this one, you’ll need some background knowledge.

Recently, we took the kids to the Frisco Railroad Museum. The kids got to learn about and tour a whole bunch of different train cars ranging from 5 to 100 years old.

After we finished at the museum, it was about lunchtime, so we took the kids to Bacchus Park to eat lunch and play for a while.

Now Bacchus is a pretty big park, so we chose a spot closest to the corner of Independence and Main.

While all of the teachers were sitting under the pavilion and watching the kids play, we noticed one kid way too far away from us getting pretty close to the road.

We blew the recess whistle to get his attention, and he came running back toward us. He must have been 200 yards away, that’s how far from the road the rest of us were.

When he finally trotted back, we asked him why he was all of the way over there by himself, and he told us he simply saw a butterfly and followed it.

I promise you, the kid has probably seen a hundred butterflies before, but for some reason, he just felt the need to chase this one for two football fields toward a three-lane road with a 55-mph speed limit.

Sometimes, the social awareness and safety skills these kids have baffled me. A lot of the time, you have to find a way to make even the most random scenarios a teaching moment. That’s just how it is.