Not Smarter than a Preschooler

It is amazing what kids are learning these days. The twins are second graders and already memorizing their multiplication tables. Somehow I thought that was a third grade lesson (but maybe I went to the wrong school).






When you finish 13 years of grade school, college and have lived in the real world for a few years, you believe you know a lot. Enter a child and you realize you know NOTHING. When the twins were 4, T2 asked what fog was. T1 said it was teeny tiny raindrops and I agreed. T2 asked again what it really was and how it is only there sometimes. Well I don’t know. So I called an expert, my father. My father has general knowledge about lots of things and while he started to explain all the complexities of fog to me, I interrupted and said – now try explaining it to a four year old. So we settled on fog is a really low cloud that forms when cold air passes over a warm ground. And the T1 said “see, it is really teeny tiny rain drops.”

I thought of this on our trip to the beach when T1 said, “I know how waves form, it is the wind.” I answered, “yes.” I mean how am I going to explain the complexities of gravity and the moon and the earth’s rotation. I’m sure the wind plays a part, so he’s right… sort of. There are times when the simple answer will just not work, and I have to go into great detail about how something works or is made. These times are usually when I find out exactly how SMART I am.

When the twins were 4, while on the way to preschool, T2 asked what roads were built on. I said the road was built on dirt.

This was sufficient for about a day, then they asked again, "How are roads built?" As we passed a construction crew we talked about the smoothing of the dirt, and the asphalt machine, and the machine that makes it smooth. I thought they were satisfied with that answer.

The next morning T2 asked "How are roads built on water?"
“They are not built on water, they are built on dirt”
“But Mommy there is water running under the road!”
“No, there is no water under the road, it is dirt.”
“Then Mommy, what is that?” As Tyler pointed to a fire hydrant.
“Ok, yes there is water in pipes running under the dirt, under the roads that goes to the fire hydrant” (and I am not smarter than a preschooler)

"Education is the progressive realization of our ignorance."

Albert Einstein

What are you teaching your children?

We teach our children all kinds of things, from the abc's to lessons on how to deal with life.
But what is sinking in, and how do you really know? 

I'm a firm believer that our children learn by example.  They learn what to do and how to do it, from the actions that we, as parents, take.  In a bad situation, which you hope upon no one - we want our children to make the right decisions.

Sunday - we had one of those situations.  And my children made me so proud.

The twins were playing down the road with their cousin who is only a year younger than them.  Running and playing in the snow as all boys do.  They were in the back yard where a narrow creek runs the property line.  Apparently all the boys were jumping back and forth across a narrow part of the creek.  Then my nephew said, and I quote
"Watch the Master," as he jumped across a wider part of the creek. 
He missed the other side, and was in water up to his neck.  He didn't know what to do and was treading water to stay up.
T1 and T2 jumped into action.  T1 went running back to the house as fast as he could while, T2 stayed calm and stayed with my nephew.  T2 told him how to swim with his arms to reach a level where he could get out of the water.  And my nephew followed directions. 

Because they didn't freak out, fight over who was going to do what. Because they thought fast, my nephew didn't drown, or get hypothermia.  Help immediately arrived, and he was safe.

I am so proud of our boys!  And the new rule in our house,
No one is allowed to say "hey ya'll watch this" or on their level "watch the master."

What do you hope your kids have learned?

It's not only children who grow. Parents do too. As much as we watch to see what our children do with their lives, they are watching us to see what we do with ours. I can't tell my children to reach for the sun. All I can do is reach for it, myself. ~Joyce Maynard

Baby Einstein doesn't make my child smart???

I've been away for a few days - had to take a break from blogosphere.  I have some other posts I've been working on and lots of blogs to read, but I'm still on break.

Except I read this article today and about fell out of my chair.   Apparently Disney is offering a refund on Baby Einstein DVD's after they recieve a letter threatening lawsuit from some public health lawyers.  (want the details- read the article)

The point is - the lawyers believe there was false advertisement and that parents believe these DVD's were making their children smart, when in fact we were just plopping them down in front of another TV show.  Before you all start shouting, I understand they were learning stuff, specifically the stuff you wanted them to learn.  Of course other shows teach them too, my 2 yr old has learned to ask "Where'd he go?"  everytime Nemo disappears.

We all know hours of television/movies/video games is bad.  We all know it makes for shorter attention spans, couch potatoes, etc.   So we  limit the amount of television they watch and force encourage them to go outside.

At least I thought we all knew this, and did this.  But apparently not.

Lunch for Free

Did you know children may now buy their lunch for free? Yes siree - if your child has an id card, they can walk right up to the line and buy lunch and deduct it from your card. No money - no problem - the children cannot starve and must therefore get free lunch and hey the school will bill ya.


How do we know - well it goes like this. We got two bills last year from the school, one for each kid, for totals under $5.00 each. See on the odd occasion we let them buy lunch, we send the money for lunch. But the a la carte items are extra and instead of TELLING THE CHILDREN THEY CAN'T HAVE WHAT THEY DON'T HAVE MONEY FOR they let them buy whatever the heck they want. Did I mention the twins were in the first grade last year and obviously didn't know there were A LA CARTE options.


Apparently somewhere along the way Tyler figured this out and with his $2.00 in cash, he used $1.00 to buy ONE FRICKIN PENCIL from the school store that he thought was cool and use the other dollar for his lunch, and yeah they let him. No problemo.


This year they haven't been able to buy lunch yet. It is now $2.15, which I'm sure really amounts to $4 or $5. And I can make lunch for less than that each day - plus I KNOW what is in their lunch. I don't know if they will ever buy lunch again - I thought...

See, Nathaniel - dear Nathaniel -left his lunch box on the bus on Thursday MORNING and therefore got a complete ( I guess) lunch for FREE! Yes we are teaching our children the power of credit cards without having to ever pay them. FABULOUS morals we have going on here.


Disclaimer: not that I am against the don't let the child starve policy

Before & After Twins

There are lots of before and afters -

• before college/after college
• before real world job/after real world job
• before marriage/after marriage
• before kids/after kids
• before twins/ after twins

Of all the lessons that we learn in before and after periods, one would think we wouldn't judge those around us too harshly. HA! We all go people watch and we all judge, even if just to ourselves. I used to judge - then I had twins.

BEFORE I had twins I wanted all matching baby furniture - the stoller and carseat and highchair all looked great as a coordinated set.
AFTER I had twins, I was happy to have the high chair that was left by a neighbor for the trash man.

BEFORE I had twins I thought kids in matching clothes was cute.
AFTER I had twins I wanted to be able to tell them apart - besides hand me downs don't come in matching sets.

BEFORE I had twins I imagined making a nice breakfast each morning from scratch for my family.
AFTER I had twins I was happy to get the cherrios into the bowl.

BEFORE I had twins I dispised people who let their children throw tantrums in public.
AFTER I had twins I realized the only way to stop tantrums in public is to just not take them in public.

BEFORE I had twins I knew I would take the time to make sure I looked well put together before venturing out in public.
AFTER I had twins I realized I was lucky if my clothes matched and didn't smell of puke.

Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me... Anything can happen, child. Anything can be. ~Shel Silverstein

not sure about this

I love the bond between my children. The twins have their own special bond, and then they love their little brother too. T2 loves Little Man as much as T1 does, but T1 has a special knack for younger children. He knows how to play with them, and lately he has learned he can teach them too.

It started innocently enough (doesn't it always?). T1 taught Bradley to give hugs when asked. Which is pretty neat, I always asked for kisses, but never hugs, I guess because I was already hugging them. We are all big huggers in our house, and T1 taught Little Man to do the same. But the day T1 figured out he taught Little Man something, well that must have been when the light switch went on.

I came home the other day to a nice loving home, I walked into the kitchen to set down my purse and had a 2 year old point his finger at me and say "Don't you dare!"

What? I am now being bossed by a 2 year old, as if coworkers and a hubby and 7 year olds are not enough. I was a little shocked, until T1 explained it to me. "Mommy, I taught him that!"

I'm not so sure about this.

When the student is ready, the master appears. ~Buddhist Proverb