She Asks Good Questions

Little M, is now nearly seven years old. She's been taking in every bit scrap of information this country has to offer for more than half her life now.  She's got the added benefit of a spiffy new pair of spectacles (it turns out she was nearly blind due to an eye muscle problem which can be corrected with glasses over the next few years).

Since the beginning, we've loved her questions. 

I've tried to keep her grammar intact so you can get a sense for how her English is progressing.

Age 3:

In reference to a brand-new set of pre-school lacing cards I bought her at age three "why would anyone do this?"

On women's figure skating at the Winter Olympics "why does that girl wear a swimsuit on the ice? That doesn't sound like a good idea."

On pairs skating at the Winter Olympics "Why they are on TV if they can't even skate by themselfs yet"

Age 4:

Watching football she points to the referee and asks "is he the boss who gets to sass the people?"

After coming home from the bookshop with new books "Mom? Will you please read dad my new books? I can't read yet."

Age 5:

"If Andrew is a tuxedo cat, what does that make Arthur?" (Arthur is our ginger cat).  Big sister answered this question for me..."Arthur is a casual cat."

Age 6:

Today we went for a walk at a pioneer cemetery because we had down time in a neighborhood that had literally  nothing else, and the weather was good.   I talked with M about math facts--how to determine how old someone was at their time of death based on the headstone engraving, and we talked about how old that person would be now, and how long ago they died, and at what age they passed, etc.

An interesting discussion followed.

"Mom...what are those big rock things?"

Me: "Headstones are respectful ways of remembering people."

M: "Whose idea was it to put a big rock on someone's head to show respect? That doesn't even sound like a good idea."

Me: "I don't know, but I think if it's a fancy rock, it might play by different rules."

M: "What about all of the little fences?"

Me: "Do you mean the plot fences?"

M: "Is it to keep them in? They're not goin' anywhere.... are they?"

We also love her "spin"

We've been teaching M at home this year, and she recently did a unit on the Trojan War.  It was really a sleeper, but she powered through.  This particular lesson was on the Battle of Thermopale, and the war that followed it.

M isn't one to waste any energy on a subject she isn't interested in.  This particular assignment had me laughing out loud (it was to be a first-grade report on the Trojan War, but the subject of her drawing was Thermopale, hence the "narrative" not matching the photo.

I laughed out loud that this was her assessment of a "complete report."  Her big sister (also not one to waste any unnecessary effort on a writing project) laughed and said "Yeah, she should have capitalized 'greeks'!" Oy vey... 

Needless to say, the assignment was repeated, but I like this one better.