You Forget What It's Like to Learn

I don't know about you, but after being out of school for a while, I've forgotten what it's like to learn something new - especially in the eyes of a three year old. Isaac is a sponge. He's soaking up everything around him, looking at everything and everyone, and retaining every ounce of information that his brain will allow: animals, names, colors, plants, birds, cause and effect, food, cooking steps, numbers, letters, speaking/sounds, site words, story lines, reasoning... it's all new and it's all different.

We reached the "Why?" stage a long time ago and it got old... fast. However, I have to remind myself on a daily basis, he's asking these things because he honestly doesn't know:

...why the sky is blue.
...why the grass is green.
...why the airplanes fly in the sky.
...why the birds sing different songs.
...why blue and red make purple.
...why the policeman pulled a car over.
...why meatballs are in his spaghetti instead of the regular ground beef or Italian sausage.
...why a B looks like a B.
...why pressing the gas pedal in the car makes it go.
...why we eat breakfast food at breakfast and dinner food at dinner.
***these are all real questions I've been asked over the past few months***

However, now that he knows that he can ask why... we've had to draw a line. He's gotten himself into the habit of asking "Why?" about everything, even if he already knows the answer. So, asking "why?" after we gave him an answer that he doesn't like (usually answering "no" to something he wants) is no longer acceptable. Asking "why?" about something that he already knows isn't answered. Instead, we ask HIM why. He gets a huge kick out of that... he'll get proud, answer us and say "Did you know that?!"

Yes buddy, we did... and obviously you did too... BUT we act like he's taught us something new which gives him a whole new feeling of pride. It's not a bad pride, it's a pride in himself and his knowledge and his expansion what he already knows.

The best part of all of this is that he is already trying to pass on his "vast" knowledge to Ava. Once she actually understands what he's teaching her, my time with them is going to get even more entertaining. I can't wait to see him TEACHING her, her being proud of learning and him being proud of himself for teaching her and bring proud of HER for learning something new. Does that make sense? It's the circle of life - and it's fabulous.

Today, Isaac "taught" me that a mouse is an animal. If he asks, tell him my mind is BLOWN!