Yesterday we were down at my sister in law's house to have a dinner. When we arrived they were watching some show on the Discovery channel about snakes in Florida. All 3 of my girls love snakes, they aren't completely creeped out by those slithering beings, which is nice because I'm not either, I love snakes.
Trinity keeps telling me "Mom you shouldn't be afraid of spiders, snakes seems like a more reasonable fear. Cause snakes can actually kill you and spiders around here can't."
Words of wisdom and almost perfect logic from an 11 year old child. How do you explain that fear is not rational or reasonable? And its not really fear its more of a phobia.
At last I will get to the point. I was sitting down cuddling with my nephew while he was chugging down a bottle, and Piper is sitting on the couch, closest to the gliding rocker I was using and starts rattling off information about snakes.
I gave her a confused look and asked where she learned all these wonderful little bits of information. "Did they say it on the T.V.?" In response to her statement "Snakes can unhinge their mouths to help them eat BIG animals."
She frown at me and gave me an outraged "No." Then smiled. "I learned it at The MOST." For those of you who don't know The MOST is the Museum of Science and Technology, in Syracuse and the first graders took a trip there earlier in the year. Needless to say I was astonished that she had learned something from the trip. Why am I amazed? Because when she came home from the field trip and we asked her about it she talked about the play area and the interactive systems of the body, like how she stuck her arm up the big nose and climbed into the heart. Never once did this child mention to me that they had a live snake at The MOST and they were giving lectures about the animal. WTH!
The information continued to flow from her little mouth, actually confirming she had not only paid attention but absorbed the information and stored it until such a time that she was able to use it in a conversation. Her little face was all a glow with pride and knowledge, and I never stopped her even though I also knew what she was talking about.
Sometimes being a parent is frustrating and you wonder what the hell are they learning in school, especially when you ask everyday and they say "nothing". I guess it's not nothing, its just a matter of them finding the right opportunity to educate you!
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