Thursday, May 7, 2009

Cute little bits

Chloe's learning about the Revolutionary War and the events leading up to it: the Boston Tea Party, the signing of the Declaration of Independence, etc. I'm surprised at her level of interest and understanding, so we're just kind of running with it as long as she stays interested. Teaching a six year old some of these more grown-up concepts inevitably will result in little bits of humor occasionally.

The Revolutionary War, of course, centers around the idea of freedom. While lying in bed the other night pondering the concept of a free country, she says "Mom, this might be a free country, but this is definitely not a free house." I looked at her quizzically. "I have to clean my room, I have to eat yucky foods, I have to go to bed. It's not freedom." Thankfully, I have the freedom to parent her as I see fit, and that means making her eat her veggies.

Then last night she asked, "Mom, what's "boycott" mean?" Oh squee. I love the opportunity to teach her about extra cool concepts like boycotting. I also love when my six year old makes references to such things in public. ;o) I explained boycott. We talked about things we might boycott - paper towels, chemical cleaners, plastic grocery bags. We talked about what might happen if a bunch of people boycotted a company (that it might go out of business, etc.) I feel certain she understood the idea of boycott. So much so that she said "I think I'm going to boycott cleaning my room."

Sweet.

Be careful what you teach your children... they just might use that knowledge against you.

===

Cora the other day brought me my knitting. She handed me the ball of yarn and needles (they were where she wanted to sit on the recliner) and she said "Shoot."

It took me a bit, but I figured it out. She thinks knitting is called "shoot"; that's what I say all the time while I'm knitting.

===

We were on a drive the other day and Chloe was bored and ready to go home. She knew home was North-East so she kept asking what direction we were going. I mean like, over and over to the point of being annoying. So I had the ingenious idea to show her the digital compass in the truck. "N means North. E means East," I told her. Ha. Now she could do it herself and didn't have to keep asking.

So we're driving along and she informs us of the direction of our travel... about every 20 seconds. "North. East. Northeast. North. Northwest. North. East." So much for not being annoying. It had us laughing though. Especially when Cora started saying "Nor. Ee. Nor."

2 comments:

Dani said...

Lilli's new curriculum is based on World History. My aunt (a retired first grade teacher) is absolutely amazed and thinks it's silly that it's World History and it's for first grade.

WHY is that silly??? I've been reading through some of the books and I know Lilli's going to absolutely love it and learn a ton!!

Mama Kautz said...

LOL about SHOOT at least it isn't SH*T unless it really is LOL

also LOL at the directions....wait til she can tell time!