"Nothing" at School

We all do it or we've all done it -well anybody that has or had a child in school. "How was your day at school kiddo?" And it seems that the answer is "good" or "fine." Then a follow up, "what did you do today?" And a return "nothing."

Everyone knows that's not exactly true but for a preschooler, that's a much harder open ended question. If I don't ask a specific question, I really don't get much of an answer. So I have started to ask things like, what did you have for snack, who were the helpers and who did you sit by at lunch. I enjoy hearing about the social aspects of school but I know the teacher is very good, wonderful actually and they have a great educational program and these are the things that are a little harder to pull out of my son. He likes to talk about what he learned but if the question isn't targeted then I'm definitely not getting an answer. That is unless it slips out, like today.

These are moments that I just love because he's learning and applying what he learned (on a four year old level).

I picked him up from school and when he got in the car I had two cups, identical, except one was full of water and the other was empty. My son got so excited and screamed "mom, those are opposites, they are the same cups but one is full and one is empty. Mrs. O loves opposites and she'd really like those cups!"

To help with learning the alphabet and upper and lower case letters the classroom has 'letter people' and they focus on a letter each week. This is usually the only time I really get a glimpse into what he's learning vs. what he is being taught.

I believe we learn a lot from children or at least have the opportunity. One very distinct thing I remember being impressed to learn was when he informed me at Christmastime why a candy cane is shaped the way it is because his teacher taught him. Honestly I had no idea why it's shaped like a hook, I don't even think I would have had an educated guess. Well I quickly found out that it's molded to look like a shepherd's crook.

As he grows, I know that I will learn more and more. And sometimes maybe stuff I'm not ready to learn that he knows. Thank goodness he's four and we aren't even close to those days.