Practice Makes Perfect

Eric Kaplan practiced his dribbling skills every day that we have been outside this year. His concentration was amazing as he remained focused on the ball no matter what was happening around him. Other children were kicking a soccer ball, teachers and children were walking by him, and Eric continued to dribble the ball trying to improve upon each previous performance. Yesterday, after dribbling 75 times without interruption, he told me that today he wanted to improve upon that number. While encouraging him, we both also acknowledged how hard that was going to be. Four hundred and eighty five dribbles later, we looked at each other in disbelief. Eric was both exhausted and elated at the same time. What was especially nice besides Eric's individual accomplishment, was that many of the younger children started to practice their dribbling skills after Eric had finished. I encouraged him to help them as they clearly looked to him as a model. As we were going inside we both noticed two other children, using a similar technique, starting to dribble the ball and count.