The Young Mind
My grandson Caleb has loved learning since
he was a little thing. Even the littlest thing,
he would listen and soak it all up. I started
teaching him when he was a few months
old with animal sounds. Teaching him the
sound and then telling him what animal it
was.
We did colors, trees, bushes, birds and even
state capitals. Before he was 4 years old he
knew 32 state capitals. A lot of those we did
not stay on top of and he has forgotten most.
If I was working around the house with a
screw driver or hammer, cleaning….whatever,
my little shadow wanted to be a part of it all.
I taught him to use that screw driver and
hammer as well as the vacuum cleaner. By
the time he was two, he was excellent with
a toilet brush! Scared me at times because
I worried about child labor laws! I taught
him how to make his bed….and mine. Actually,
we made mine together making a game of it.
That was how I taught him a lot of things,
making a game of it. He learns so fast and
retains what he learns.
He use to help me cook, do dishes standing
in the chair, make a salad and even mop. But
it was the things that he picked up in an everyday
conversation or activity that amazed me. Like
when I let him help me strip off wall paper,
not knowing that it would stay with him. So
one night while spending the night in my bed
at the age of about 2, I turned my back on him
because he would not lay still and go to sleep,
when I hear, RIP! I had made the statement
sometime before that when I decided to strip
the paper off my one wall in my room, he could
help. He decided he would start it before I was
ready! Sometimes those things we teach or
show them to do….come back to get you!
He will now to this day at the age of 8.5, point
out those birds we learned or a certain flower
or tree. He has showed me things on my
computer, tv and cell phone that I had NO
clue about. Things I did not teach him or his
Mom, just things he picked up by getting on
there and messing around. Or like him having
a facebook account and plays on farmtown. I
will be on my farm and he on his at his house
and he will instant chat me. Asking me what
I am doing…then the times he calls me to tell
me I have things to harvest on my farm. He is
a smarty.
Daily fun and conversations become a learning
experience for me these days. He will come out
with things that I don’t think an 8 year old
would know. Or I will ask him a question and
he will answer, surprising me. There as been a
time or two that I have had to go to the internet
and look things up to see if he was right, he has
been!
For instance, I got him a little pin light that shows
in blue and red light. He shines it upon the
ceiling and tells me the blue light looks like
diamonds. Then he flips to the red and says,
“Look Nana, red diamonds”. I tell him that I
don’t think there is a thing called red diamonds
and he tells me that a red one would be a ruby.
He learned that in a science book he checked
out of the school library.
The other day we were watching Armageddon
with Bruce Willis. I asked Caleb if he knew
what happen to dinosaurs. He looks at me
and rolls those eyes and tells me he does.
Then he begins to explain that an asteroid
hit the earth and killed them. He said that
what did not die that way died when the
asteroid cause the water to come up on the
banks and it drowned the rest of them.
I looked stunned I guess that he knew this
and he told me that he was right wasn’t he.
The child amazes me daily. I love the fact
that his brain soaks in the things that he
hears and learns. I love it that he can tell
me things that I have to look up to see if
he is right. I love it that he learned so much
in the five years he lived with me. I love the
fact that when 2nd grade ended this year, he
was reading at a 4th grade level. I love his
little sweet face and those blue eyes that light
up when he is excited, and I love those words
that he says to me, “I love you Nana, more
then infinity and beyond”. Yes, Nana is proud
of you.
Thanks for stopping in,
Pam
he was a little thing. Even the littlest thing,
he would listen and soak it all up. I started
teaching him when he was a few months
old with animal sounds. Teaching him the
sound and then telling him what animal it
was.
We did colors, trees, bushes, birds and even
state capitals. Before he was 4 years old he
knew 32 state capitals. A lot of those we did
not stay on top of and he has forgotten most.
If I was working around the house with a
screw driver or hammer, cleaning….whatever,
my little shadow wanted to be a part of it all.
I taught him to use that screw driver and
hammer as well as the vacuum cleaner. By
the time he was two, he was excellent with
a toilet brush! Scared me at times because
I worried about child labor laws! I taught
him how to make his bed….and mine. Actually,
we made mine together making a game of it.
That was how I taught him a lot of things,
making a game of it. He learns so fast and
retains what he learns.
He use to help me cook, do dishes standing
in the chair, make a salad and even mop. But
it was the things that he picked up in an everyday
conversation or activity that amazed me. Like
when I let him help me strip off wall paper,
not knowing that it would stay with him. So
one night while spending the night in my bed
at the age of about 2, I turned my back on him
because he would not lay still and go to sleep,
when I hear, RIP! I had made the statement
sometime before that when I decided to strip
the paper off my one wall in my room, he could
help. He decided he would start it before I was
ready! Sometimes those things we teach or
show them to do….come back to get you!
He will now to this day at the age of 8.5, point
out those birds we learned or a certain flower
or tree. He has showed me things on my
computer, tv and cell phone that I had NO
clue about. Things I did not teach him or his
Mom, just things he picked up by getting on
there and messing around. Or like him having
a facebook account and plays on farmtown. I
will be on my farm and he on his at his house
and he will instant chat me. Asking me what
I am doing…then the times he calls me to tell
me I have things to harvest on my farm. He is
a smarty.
Daily fun and conversations become a learning
experience for me these days. He will come out
with things that I don’t think an 8 year old
would know. Or I will ask him a question and
he will answer, surprising me. There as been a
time or two that I have had to go to the internet
and look things up to see if he was right, he has
been!
For instance, I got him a little pin light that shows
in blue and red light. He shines it upon the
ceiling and tells me the blue light looks like
diamonds. Then he flips to the red and says,
“Look Nana, red diamonds”. I tell him that I
don’t think there is a thing called red diamonds
and he tells me that a red one would be a ruby.
He learned that in a science book he checked
out of the school library.
The other day we were watching Armageddon
with Bruce Willis. I asked Caleb if he knew
what happen to dinosaurs. He looks at me
and rolls those eyes and tells me he does.
Then he begins to explain that an asteroid
hit the earth and killed them. He said that
what did not die that way died when the
asteroid cause the water to come up on the
banks and it drowned the rest of them.
I looked stunned I guess that he knew this
and he told me that he was right wasn’t he.
The child amazes me daily. I love the fact
that his brain soaks in the things that he
hears and learns. I love it that he can tell
me things that I have to look up to see if
he is right. I love it that he learned so much
in the five years he lived with me. I love the
fact that when 2nd grade ended this year, he
was reading at a 4th grade level. I love his
little sweet face and those blue eyes that light
up when he is excited, and I love those words
that he says to me, “I love you Nana, more
then infinity and beyond”. Yes, Nana is proud
of you.
Thanks for stopping in,
Pam
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