Have You Ever?

Have you ever been completely amazed by the workings of a small child's mind?  Have you ever sat in wonderful amazement as you hear them spout off information you have no clue how they learned it?  I'm not talking about the type of stuff you don't want them to learn...those are moments we, as parents, cringe as to how to answer or refute the authenticity; like where do babies come from?  Ah, well, um, you see, uh when a man and a woman love each other very much....and then at that moment you break out in a cold sweat glancing around you wondering what the heck you're supposed to say next and wishing for a distraction.  I mean at this moment is it completely inappropriate to jump up and yell, 'I think I smell dinner burning on the stove'?  While darting away, with your hands splayed in the air screaming?  Probably. 

I'm talking about facts, figures, and things along those lines.  As I've previously mentioned, we homeschool.  Before you wonder - no we're not out sporting twelve kids, donning ankle length skirts, long hair, unsocialized freaks of nature as so many stereotypically envision.  Today our seven year old asks, "Hey, Mommy, do you know what half of 50 is?"  I feel compelled to stand up and shout 'I know, I know!'   Or wave my hand wildly in the air grinning like a Cheshire cat, because I've got this one!  He didn't let me answer it though.  Darn.  He says it's 25!  I agree that he got the answer correct, and that he was in fact using division.  That's something we've not yet begun, as he's only a second grader after all.  So I seize the moment and ask, what's half of 100, half of 8, okay what about 16, 22, 40...he got them all right!  Obviously, he's inherited his father's knack for Mathematics, I figure we'll either enlist Dad's help for upper Mathematics, or we'll need a tutor for him (and myself!). 

I was thoroughly impressed.  It's in those moments, that one realizes how much your children absorb.  That's also the moment you have to admit to yourself that it's not through your 'good teaching' that your child is learning.  They truly are little sponges.  But, not the kind that lives in a pineapple under the sea, of course.  And that ladies and gentlemen is my cue to go to sleep, when you're clarifying how a cartoon character, such as Spongebob, is unlike a child, you know you're exhausted.