When my son was 9 years old and in the 4th grade he had to go through a series of psychological and intelligence test in order to identify a learning disability. When the school psychologist reviewed the tests with us one of the first things he noted about our son was the depth of his general knowledge.
The psychologist said, "There wasn't a topic I asked your son about that he wasn't familiar with, from subjects as diverse as patents to who was Gandhi."
It dawned on me that both of the topics he gave as examples we had talked about at dinner. My husband and I have never limited our dinner conversation to kid only topics. We will discuss science, politics, current events, etc... and the kids usually ask questions about what we are talking about... and we explain. We don't brush them off, and we never assume that they can't understand. Of course there are levels of understanding, but as our son surprised his school's psychologist... you never know how much they may actually learn just from dinner conversation.
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Good point! I know we need to widen our dinner conversations. I'll keep this in mind!
ReplyDeleteYou'll be surprised at what kids are interested in... who thought patents would be a topic a 9 year old was curious about?
DeleteLove that, Diane. We are the same way and discuss everything with the boys. I'm a firm believer in family dinners. Thanks for sharing. ~ Paula pmctunejones@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteThanks Paula... they really do take in a lot more than you think.
DeleteSo very true! It makes me sad to think of all the families who are NOT having dinner together every night. How much are we as a society missing out on! What are we trading dinners for? Can't be worth it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for another great post!
You can run yourself and your kids ragged driving them here and there to all kinds of activities and eating fast food along the way... I'm not sure it is really good for them or us.
DeleteWow, that's amazing! We've had a few conversations about topics which generally lead to me pulling out my cellphone and checking Google for info. My kids are into data like what's the biggest planet or how big is the world?
ReplyDeleteThanks for linking up at Motivation Monday!
With the internet there really isn't any reason not to try to answer a kid's question... Yeah, Barb I was really surprised by what my son was absorbing.
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