Tuesday, February 2, 2010

I Do Teach Them...Really!

Something tells me it’s time for more learning at home—vocabulary class and more scripture reading, apparently.

The other day we were driving and passed a panhandler holding a sign. I was driving and didn’t read the sign, but Elisa did. She said, “Yeah, right. I bet he doesn’t even have a pet.”
“What do you mean? I asked.
“His sign said ‘Vet needs money, homeless’ and I don’t think he even has a pet.”
“Do you know what vet means?”
“Yes. Veterinarian.”
“Sometimes, but this time it is short for veteran.
“Oooooohhhh.” (Yes, she did know what that meant.)
Crazy thing is, we passed the same man yesterday and he actually had a dog with him. Maybe it was money for the veterinarian.

Then, believe it or not, just minutes after that, another clue that I’m not teaching as much as I thought. For some reason, Sabrina has always loved going over railroad tracks so since she was young, she would always say, “Thank you, Mommy” every time we went over them, as if I went out of my way to do it for her. Well after seeing the man above, we were driving when the car ahead of us slowed down to less than 5 miles an hour to go over the railroad tracks that crossed the road. I mentioned how slow the car went over the railroad tracks. Then we went over them. Elisa said, “Sabrina, you didn’t say ‘Thank you, Mommy.”
Sabrina said, “Yeah. That’s because Mommy said they are railroad tracks. I like train tracks.” So now she knows they’re the same thing.
Then for the scripture study…Do you remember Elisa’s Shakespeare comment? She still thinks that scriptures and Shakespeare are similar (kinda are since we don’t speak like either of them any more). We were talking and Alex quoted a scripture. Elisa nonchalantly said, “Shakespeare” like she knew it. When we told her it was a scripture she just laughed and decided next time to assume it was scripture. Yeah, we don’t do a whole lot of Shakespeare quoting here.

The last example involves one of my strange habits. I don’t know why, but I sometimes break out into song at home. It’s not something I do in front of most people even if they already suspect I’m a bit odd (even though I’ll tell you about it), but I do it in front of my children all the time. For some reason I started singing “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal” while I was cooking when Elisa was helping me. She asked me, “Which Article of Faith is that?” Luckily, she has a good sense of humor and doesn’t get mad at people laughing at her, and even joined in laughing when I told her it was from the Declaration of Independence.

Kids are good at reminding you of the things you’re not doing quite right, but they sure bring a lot of laughs!

8 comments:

  1. It's fun to hear what kids are thinking, isn't it? I remember a sign on Milton Avenue, which was a dead end street when I was growing up. It said, "Not a Through Street." I hadn't noticed it until a time when there was work being done on our street, and I said to my parents, "They need to take that sign down because they're through now." I was about four when that happened.

    Elisa's hair looks so fancy! Bet that took a while!

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  2. Oh, and Sabrina's hair looks fancy too. It almost looks blonde on the ends with the light hitting it! Cute girls!

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  3. Great post. It reminds me of how they manage to grasp onto the strangest things! I also have that strange habit of singing all the time. I was singing a Beach Boys song once and my daughter started singing along to "when her daddy took her two men away!" We still laugh together over that one! Give hugs to each of the girls and enjoy the laughter!

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  4. Kids are so funny with the things they think of sometimes. I don't think it is a lack of teaching at all,it is just a different way of interpreting.

    Love the Shakespeare - ha ha.

    You're going to be glad you recorded these :D

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  5. That is too funny about the Vet and the pet!!

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  6. I love how thier minds work and the reminders they give us that what's common sense to the rest of us isn't so to them. They've got their own concept.

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  7. LOL what fun kids. And they sound really easy going too!!

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  8. They're something else aren't they?
    ~ingrid

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