Wii's and Reflection

I know Hunter hasn't had much of a spotlight on here lately, but he said something the other day that made me laugh.

We were watching Netflix with the Wii and he suddenly commented,

"Mom, wouldn't it be cool if the Wii remote could reflect off of me and then bounce back to the sensor?"

Haha, I need to write down this kid's random antics more often. :)

"The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:" 

Numbers 6:25

Hunter is 6 years, 3 months old

Meteor Stencils?

The other day while we were decorating a recycled frozen juice container to make Hunter's new pencil can, Hunter was going through his pack of stencils to decide which ones would make the cut and said,

"I want to use the crab, the dinosaur, and the meteor."

Don't your stencil kits have meteors in them?

"Is not God in the height of heaven? and behold the height of the stars, how high they are!" 

Job 22:12

Hunter is 5 years, 4 months old

Egg Division (Not-so Mathematical Monday)

Anyone remember Piaget's experiments on children in the "preoperational stage" (2-6) where he theorized that children of this age couldn't yet understand quantity?

The idea of "number conservation" - that is, that the actual number or quantity stays the same even if the items are rearranged, spread apart, or moved - was something that Piaget believed was too advanced for a child until about the age of seven.

Hunter hasn't really ever had a problem with this since, ever since he was pretty young we were doing the Doman math program. But today's little episode reminded me of good old Piaget and the later debunking of this particular theory of young children, while Hunter and I were doing a little math with today's lunch.

You see, it's true that most little kids without much math instruction will tell you there are "more" marbles if you spread them apart and make the pile "bigger", even though you didn't add any actual marbles. However, more recent experiments to mimic Piaget's original show that little kids do indeed have more math smarts than once thought. One experiment, not listed in the above link, showed that when the set of rearranged objects was something desirable (say, M&M candies instead of marbles), little kids would consistently pick the pile that had more actual candies versus the pile that was just spread out more. Maybe we were just asking the question wrong.

Hunter wasn't picking from a pile of candies, but he reminded me of that little experiment today when we were playing around with our lunch, finding the possible dividends for the number six.

We made six hard boiled eggs to eat, three for him and three for me. "What's six divided by two?" I enquired.

"Three" he figures.

"Ok, well what would we do if we wanted to divide these six eggs for three people?"

After staring at the three bowls and thinking for quite some time about his much beloved eggs, he finally offers,

"Cook some more eggs."

Guess when it's something you want, the math doesn't matter so much, does it?

"And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another..."

Genesis 10:15

Hunter is 5 years, 1 month old

Random Acts of Sweetness

I walked in on Hunter today carefully writing out the following note, which he taped to the door and excitedly announced belonged to Brandon.

"I luv mi mom and Bradin"

I love his little random acts of sweetness.

"...A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother."

Proverbs 10:1

Hunter is 5 years, 0 months old

Technicalities

Sometimes Hunter's figuring out the world seems to get in the way of himself (and myself).

Like recently, for example, he has been obsessed with the technical definition of the words couple and few. If I tell him, "There are only a couple bites left" he'll say, "But mom, a couple is two." Or when I say "in a few minutes" he counts to make sure it is within the range of three and twelve.

Or another recent phenomena is him telling me what is healthy and not healthy. The other day I gave him a piece of toast with butter on it, an appetizer before I started making dinner, and he said, "But Mom, bread and butter is not a healthy meal." Or him telling me that he can't eat peanut butter and jelly because jelly has a ton of sugar in it.

Today, he cracked me up when, he was going through his backpack (which we had used for hiking the other day) and found a lighter in it. He told me, "Mom, you know that can't go in my bag. Fire safety!" and threw it out.

There seems to be this fine line between him curiously correcting me and him, well, sometimes unknowingly and quite innocently getting out of hand, but it sure is funny watching him figuring things out and in the meantime giving us all a good laugh.

"...then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." 

Genesis 3:5

Hunter is 4 years, 10 months old

Curious Mind

So this morning, in the middle of eating his breakfast, Hunter came upstairs and asked me, "Mom, why do Cheerios float to the top in milk instead of sink to the bottom?" (hand motions accompanied)

I'm used to this type of questioning, but, today was particularly humorous, as while I gave him my best attempt at explaining density and buoyancy, he sat there, with his head tilted, elbow resting on a box with his chin cupped so elegantly in his hand, staring intently at me as I continued with my presentation.

Thirty seconds later, as soon as I was done, he sat up, walked out of the room, and said with a smile, "Ok, thanks for letting me know."

He is asking questions all the time but I just started cracking up laughing when he left the room, wondering "What was that about?"

He has, as usual, been full of laughs. He has really been into story-telling lately, coming up with all kinds  of adventures which usually involve him protecting his cousins from the eminent dangers of the jungle or some other animal-laden arena. Last night, he told me that tomorrow he was going to tell me a story, and explained that, "Yeah, I'm going to think about it, and then tomorrow I'll just spit it out!"

His most off the wall comment lately though was theological in nature. He had asked me (for the umpteenth time) why God had decided to make people. My answer, among other things, included that God wanted to have friends. Hunter, after a few moments, told me, "Well God doesn't want to be friends with the Indians, because they don't know that you're supposed to cover your nakedness."

(This was followed by a lengthy explanation, that God still wants to be friends with people even if they're naked, among other things.) The things that go through this kid's head!

"Then shalt thou enquire, and make search, and ask diligently..." 

Deuteronomy 13:14

Hunter is 4 years, 10 months old

Candor

can⋅dor

[kan-der]

–noun

1. the state or quality of being frank, open, and sincere in speech or expression; candidness

So I found this little survey on someone else's blog the other day and thought it would be fun to try out with Hunter, see what answers he would come up with.

I tried not to give him examples when asking the question (i.e. asking "What do you and I do together? You know, like do we read, cook, walk, what?") because he will generally just pick one of my suggestions.

So this is the suggestion-free survey of Mommy according to Hunter. (Warning: complete and utter randomness)

Hey Hunter, we're gonna play a game ok? I'm gonna ask you some questions to see how much you know me.  

"I do know you. You're Elizabeth. Elizabeth [Last name]."

Ok but I'm going to ask you some questions about what you think about me, ok? It'll be fun. 

"Ok."

 1. What is something I always say to you?

"Um, get my lesson book, feed the dog..."

Is that all? 

"Yes."

 2. What makes me happy?

"Cleaning up stuff, like the living room, the dog's cage, the kitchen..." [really?]

 3. What makes me sad?

"It makes you sad when Brandon's not here and me and Brandon go places. That makes you sad."

That's what makes me sad?

"Yeah, it does make you sad. But when we come back, it doesn't make you sad. That makes you happy."

 4. How do I make you laugh?

"Um, when I'm playing with Brandon, you make me laugh."

How?

"When you say something funny that makes me laugh when I'm playing with Brandon."

Like what? 

"I don't know, I can't think of anything."

 5. What was I like when I was a little girl?

"I don't know."

You can't think of anything?

"You have been bad when you were a little girl and not listening to my Nana. And you took a toy in bed and lost it when you woke up."

Ok... anything else?

"My Nana told you to put the toy away and you disobeyed her. And I was gonna be there to help, but I wasn't there. But I should've. And you should've asked for something, like pudding... But if my Nana askes you to set the table, will you set it? Did you set it when my Nana told you to, did you? When you were a little girl, did you? Excuse me Mom, did you?"

[I was typing and trying to record all this, so I didn't answer right away. I think this story possibly has something to do with a story I may have told him a long time ago about a time I disobeyed, but I really have no clue what he was talking about!]

 6. How old am I?

"Um, I don't know how old you are. How old are you?"

 7. How tall am I?

"I don't know. You're like 60 pounds." [I guess he doesn't have the greatest sense of weight]

No I asked how tall I was not how much I weighed, silly.

"I don't know." He paused for a minute, then said, "I want to measure you."

Just guess. You are 44 inches tall, how tall do you think I am?

"I think you're 62 inches tall." [close - 65, actually]

 8. What is my favorite thing to do?

"Playing with me. That's what you wanna do in the whole world."

 9. What do I do when you’re not around?

"Um, be with Brandon, playing with him."

What do Brandon and I do?

"Well let's see.. you play with Brandon and you watch TV with him, and you come to pick me up when it's bedtime for me. That's what you do with Brandon, that's all." [pick me up at bedtime has to do with the time he went to the neighbors when Brandon and I went to a Christmas party] 

 10. If I become famous, what will it be for? (I had to explain this one, he didn't know what famous meant.)

Famous means like something you do that a lot of people know you for, like the president is famous, or a musician, or an athlete... 

"I'm really good at drawing. I'm a muscian. I'm famous, cause I'm really good at drawing."

Well famous means that a lot of people know you for it, like you're on TV and stuff. What do you think Mommy could be famous for?

"If you could do stuff, like be famous, like be a musician, and, nothing else."

A musician? You can't think of anything else?

"Yeah. And, I don't know what else. I have no idea."

 11. What is something I am really good at?

"Um... hmm, let's see... I'm just tryin to think of something. Well, eating, not getting food on your face." [we have been trying to get him more neat and careful when he eats and not make a mess]

Is there anything else?

"You're good at drinking, not getting drinks on you."

 12. What am I not very good at?

"Gluing."

Gluing what?

"Gluing paper."

What do you mean?

"If you have it off a book... If you have a piece of paper and you're gluing a thing off a book, and you're making a circle, that'd be hard. That's why I said that." [starts twirling a sword around and making strange noises]

Then he announces, "I'm going to ask you a few questions. What are you good at? Telling time?"

You think I'm good at telling time? 

"Yeah."

 13. What do I do for a job?

"Um, working at... Let's see, working at karate, which is cleaning... Your phone! Why aren't you answering it?" [text message came in]

I got it baby boy. But, you said my job is what?

"Working at the gym, remember?"

Well yes that was a job, but what is my job now?

"Cleaning the house. Feeding Brandon, that's your job."

Anything else?

"No, no way. Nothing else that I know."

 14. What is my favorite food?

"Pudding. Candy. Brownies. Chicken, and corn, and celery, and potatos..."

But which one do you think is my favorite?

"Chicken." [he was close with the brownies one. Chocolate is up there on my list.] 

 15. What makes you proud of me?

"When you make me food that makes me proud of you. And I'm proud of you because you make me a tent."

 16. If I were a cartoon character, who would I be?

"Supergirl."

Do you even know who Supergirl is? Have you ever seen her in a movie or something?

"Well if you're in a movie, you can be Spidergirl. I am Spiderman, there can be two. And the hulk, and we can beat up all the bad guys."

 17. What do you and I do together?

"Play. Play money-go."

What's money go?

"The one that has pennies and quarters and nickles and stuff [starts singing money song]."

 18. How are you and I the same?

"Um, well we're not the same."

Are there things about us that are the same?

"Well, we're both brown and white... And red, and black, and white..."

What? I'm not red and black and white.

"Yes you are, your lips are red, and your nose is white, and your eyes have black. We're both those same colors."

 19. How are you and I different?

"Your hair is different, because it's longer than mine."

 20. How do you know I love you?

"Because, you just told me, you just told me that you love me."

Is there something that I do that makes you know that I love you?

"Yeah, you feed me, and, let me play with my gun. And you let me play with Brandon and my gun, and read, and let me get food... But I can't get anything else without asking."

 21. What do I like most about Brandon?

"That he protects us, that he gets the bad guys, that he lets his friends come over, and that when he goes to work he says bye. That's what you like about him. That's all I'm gonna say."

 22. Ok, this is the last one for now. Where is my favorite place to go?

"McDonalds."

What? 

"Yeah, because they have cheeseburgers!"

No, what's my favorite place to go?

"California."

But we're already in California. Where is my favorite place to go here?

"I don't know. Burger King."

No, somewhere that's not food. Like any place that I like to go, a place that we can drive to, or walk to, or anything. What do you think?

"The park. You like to go to the park."

Afterwords, as I was typing, I told him, "Thanks for answering those questions for me, Hunter. That was very nice."

To which he replied, "Did that sound like a gentleman, when I talked?"

"Yes it did sound like a gentleman, Hunter."

Walking away, he smiled and whispered to himself, "I guess I am a gentleman."

"Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles..." 

1 Peter 2:12

Hunter is 4 years, 9 months old

Monkey Learns to Read

Tonight Hunter announced that monkey was going to learn how to read.

We sat down to read together and Hunter brought me the book, How Do Dinosaurs Learn to Read? To which he then proclaimed, "Monkey is going to learn how to read."

"How are you going to teach him?" I asked, curiously.

He thought about it for a minute, then said, "I will say the words, then he will say the words. And he will learn them."

Then, he sat down with the book, monkey on his lap, and starting running monkey's hands across the words.

Ah, the refreshing educational philosophy of a four-year-old.

"Blessed art thou, O LORD: teach me thy statutes." 

Psalm 119:12

Hunter is 4 years, 9 months old 

I love you

On Brandon's birthday earlier this month, I asked Hunter to write in his birthday card ten things that he likes about Brandon. This was his list:

1. He wrestles with me
2. He plays with the dog and me
3. We read together
4. He builds guns and robots for me [out of Duplos]
5. He throws food at me [this was an isolated incident, in case you were wondering]
6. He lets me play with Hudson and Danny
7. He plays ball with me
8. He buys me food
9. He scares me [for fun, haha. They are always playing tricks on each other]
10. He takes care of me

"O give thanks unto the LORD; call upon his name: make known his deeds among the people." 

Psalm 105:1

Hunter is 4 years, 9 months old

Light Focusing

Hunter was playing around with his magnifying glass today, focusing the light from the lamp on a piece of dirt he found on the couch.

He played with it for quite a while, and then told me, "Look, Mom. I made a flashlight!"

"Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee: and the light shall shine upon thy ways." 

Job 22:28

"I'm just that kind of kid"

I was looking at some old Christmas-season blog posts today when Hunter came by while I was watching "the candy game" video. The video is of him playing a quantity-finding game, and I think that the laughter in the clip was contagious because he was cracking up.

Then of course he got me cracking up, too.

Laughing, I asked him in a sort of glorified way, "How did you do that Hunter?"

He looked at me and shouted,

"Well I'm just that kind of kid!"

"I will fetch my knowledge from afar, and will ascribe righteousness to my Maker."

Job 36:3

Hunter is 4 years, 8 months old

"I Can't Do It"

The other day Hunter had another one of his friends over, who we were watching for a few hours. They had been playing for a while and were looking for something to do, so we decided on making some new paper chain decorations (to replace the Thanksgiving ones). It's a fun craft we have done every year so we were excited to make more.

His friend (who just turned five and is in kindergarten) was excited to do the craft and eagerly started gluing away. He accidentally made it into a teardrop instead of a circle, and I showed him how to overlap the ends to form a circle. He smiled and went to the next circle, which he again made into a teardrop. I again showed him how to overlap the ends, when he smiled and told me,
"It's ok, I'm too young to understand. I will understand it when I get older."

It's funny (and sad) how parents' attitudes can affect their kids - and create (for better or worse) their attitudes towards learning and life.

"I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." 

Phillipians 4:13

It's a river

"That's a river." Hunter told me today while he was tracing in his new book that Brandon got him today at Borders.

"Oh really?" I said, amused by his imagination. It was a sort of "practice page" in this write-on/wipe-off tracing book with different patterns of lines to trace over. He has been playing with it all day and has been having a lot of fun with it.

There were more lines on the page, and I decided to ask him what he thought the other ones looked like.

"What is this one?"

"I think that's where the trains go." (Perhaps it resembles his train tracks? I really have no clue...)

"Oh yeah, and what is this one?"

"I think that is a road where cars drive."

"What about this one?"

"Um, that is an upside down river."

He thought about it for a minute, then said, "No wait, maybe that's where helicopters land."

"Oh yeah?" I laughed. Don't know where that one came from.

"Maybe. I said maybe." He replied.

Next we came to the above zig-zag pattern.

"Um, that's a kind of black thing I'm makin'." (?)

He thinks it over for a minute, then tells me, "No, never mind. That's V's. The V's are upside down."

"All this, said David, the LORD made me understand in writing by his hand upon me, even all the works of this pattern."  

1 Chronicles 28:19

Hunter is 4 years, 7 months old

Language Mess-Ups

In Hunter's phonics reader, there are a lot of drills of an abundance of words that are "decodable" - that is, words that are regularly spelled, composed of only simple consonant and short-vowel sounds.

There are a few words that kids may not be familiar with, such as mum (referring to flowers), lad when talking about a boy, quip, sill, fad, etc. One of those words is dam. I cannot tell you how many times I have had to explain to Hunter that it is ok for him to read the word dam, and that is is talking about a type of wall that controls the flow of water in a river, not a curse word. Yet even though I have explained this to him lots of times, it seems like every time he reads it in a drill he embarrassedly looks up like he's in trouble.

Another language mess-up incident comes from our Arabic picture book. One of the words we've been learning is shower (دش), pronounced doosh, which my dear son finds ever so humorous. He was walking around the house the other day saying "Doosh, doosh, doosh..."

"Why are you saying that?" I asked, knowing that, unfortunately, he has heard the word d----- bag and knows it is not a term to be used.

"It means shower, mom, remember?"

To say the least, he got an explanation as to why we would only use that word if we are speaking in Arabic and talking about showers, not just for fun.

And lastly, what made me think about writing this, was today when we were reviewing the Spanish colors. I was having Hunter repeat after me, and as we're going through the colors, we came to blue - azul (pronounced ah-SOOl)

"Ass hOL'" he says

"What?" I say, laughing (I know, I'm horrible.)

"Ass hOL'" he says again, with a totally straight face, not even looking up from the duplos he was playing with.

"Say azul." I say again, one last time, still laughing (yes, I know, it's bad).

He repeats it the same way, when I finally correct him and tell him the proper way to say it. I know it's bad, but, I couldn't help but laughing at his totally straight face, him not even realizing what he was saying, and saying it the same way so many times.

Yeah. I think my kid knows too many cuss words.

"Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I: yea, thine own lips testify against thee."

 Job 15:6

Hunter is 4 years, 7 months old

Pictures Falling

"Mom, how did that fall out of your camera?" Hunter asked me.

"What are you talking about?"

"How did it fall out?"

"What fell out?"

"The picture, over there."

I looked up and he was pointing at the fridge, where a picture I printed out at Wal-greens the other day was hanging. Now, Hunter has seen me print out pictures from a home printer many times before, but we don't have a printer at our new home yet. So, apparently he saw this picture on my camera and was wondering how it got out without a printer. Or, something of that nature. I'm not really sure, didn't quite see the logic in this one.

The things that go through this kid's head.

"This is a great mystery..."

Ephesians 5:32

Hunter is 4 years, 7 months old

Monkey See, Monkey Do

You definitely don't have to tell me that kids are little parrots. They seem to pick up on everything, even when you think they're "not paying attention". It's one of those "learning by osmosis" kind of things that little kids tend to be so good at.

Sometimes it's annoying. Like you say a bad word one time and your two-year-old goes around repeating it for a week. It's a good kind of annoying, though, I guess. It tends to make you more aware of your actions and provides an ever-present reminder of the responsibility of parenthood.

Then there's the other kind of "parroting". Or, more accurately, imitating. That sort of "monkey see, monkey do" type of thing. To me, this kind is a little more intimidating. It starts young, like, I don't know, say newborn age. And it doesn't really end until adulthood. But it's probably, at least in my opinion, the strongest (or at least most noticeable) in the toddler / preschooler stage.

Ever since Hunter was a baby he would imitate things he saw me do (from talking on the phone to combing my hair) but he had seemed to have "grown out of" the more obvious imitating lately. Now, he still definitely picks up on attitudes (like, er, being grouchy) but when it comes to repeating every little thing I do, he hasn't really been doing that too much.

Recently, however, he has been in full-throttle again. Yesterday, we were heating up leftovers for lunch, and after leaving the room, I came back in and noticed that my food was done but the time never finished. Thinking it weird but brushing it to the side, I put Hunter's in, which he intently watched, and then when it got down to about 15 seconds he stopped it. "What are you doing?" I asked.

"Taking it out, like Brandon does."

Brandon, humorously, usually will just put the microwave on for a random, high amount of time (like 10 minutes) and then just take the food out whenever he thinks it's done. I had to laugh that Hunter had picked up on this and decided to follow along.

Then this morning Hunter was sent into the bathroom to wash up after breakfast, and after a few minutes Brandon went in there to see what was taking so long, and found this (picture to right). He's smiling in this picture, but he was so embarrassed when we first found him. His reaction to getting "caught" was probably the funniest part, he was so ready to shave, razor-in-hand and all.

"Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children..."

Ephesians 5:1

Hunter is 4 years, 7 months old

A Basketball Tree

While we were playing in someone's backyard today, there is a tree with an old basketball hoop attached to it, which probably was done over ten years ago as the tree has grown around the hoop!

Today Hunter was sitting next to the tree and started picking the bark off of it, to which Hunter was told, "Hunter, don't do that, it hurts the tree. How would you like it if I peeled your skin off of you?"

"But the tree doesn't have any blood!" was his response.

"Yeah but it has sap, I think. All trees have sap, don't they? I can't remember what kind of tree it is..."

Then Hunter jumped in and answered the question for him, "Silly, it's a basketball tree!"

"When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things."

1 Corinthians 13:11

Hunter is 4 years, 2 months old

I'm Not Tired

These are Hunter's famous words nowadays. "I'm not tired" he will utter even when all evidence exists to the contrary. He just simply does not want to go to sleep and miss out on all the interesting and exciting things that life has to offer.

Even though he's somewhat famous for using those words (and very frequently), today he cracked me up in his persistent denial of the sleep factor.

He had fallen asleep on the hour and fifteen minute drive home from Illinois this afternoon, and was more tired than usual when I got him out of the car and brought him in the house. I sat down with him on the couch and took the opportunity to hold him on my lap snuggling, a rarity nowadays since he is constantly on the go. Figuring it would probably be a good idea to not let him sleep much longer (since I intended on him going to bed at some point before midnight) I started talking to him, asking him questions.

"Are you tired baby?"

"No, I'm not tired." he says with his eyes closed and his head snuggled into my arm.

"Did you have a nice nap in the car?"

"I wasn't taking a nap... I wasn't sleeping, I'm not tired."

"You weren't sleeping in the car? What were you doing?"

"I was awake, I'm not tired, I wasn't sleeping" he mumbles, still only half awake.

I try to stand him up, asking him if he wants a snack. He lays down on the couch.

"Are you tired honey?"

"No."

"My son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother... When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee."

Psalm 6:20,22

Hunter is 4 years, 2 months old

Of Elephants and Science Videos

So today we were cleaning up our room, Hunter was picking up a stack of DVDs that had fallen over and asked me,

"Mom, how do elephants turn into other things?"

I was puzzled by this question at first but then I looked at the video he was holding and remembered, "Oh yeah... Incredible creatures that defy evolution..."

I got those videos a couple months ago from Vision Forum and have been very pleased with them. These, along with Moody Bible Institute's Science Video Classics set, are pretty much the only videos that Hunter watches, with the exception of a few foreign language DVDs here and there.

They're not exactly "preschool level" but I have never believed in limiting kids to that which we think they understand. I know from experience and common sense that there is no possible way of ever really knowing how much he understands, and that he probably understands a lot more than I think. So, just as we don't wait until babies understand language before we start talking to them and exposing them to it (but rather we talk to them so that they will understand), likewise we shouldn't wait until we think kids understand before exposing them to other concepts - we should expose them so that they will understand them.

Anyway, these DVDs are high quality science videos with great shots of animals, experiments, and much more, and they present a lot of interesting concepts. Yet, when Hunter watches them he usually isn't paying all that much attention for a significant portions of it, which is fine - I know that little kids don't need to sit there staring intently in order to be learning. Tiny kids just absorb.

Yet, even though I know these things, because of his lack of "paying attention" I sometimes wonder how much he is getting out of them. It's funny though how on occasions, like today, he will make funny comments like that that show me that he is picking up on things.

I'm sure though that you're wondering what on earth these videos are teaching that would make Hunter say that elephants turn into other things. I will have to admit that he did get it a little confused but, what he was thinking about was the section where they were talking about manatees. They talk about how evolutionists theorize that manatees are somehow the decedents of elephants, who supposedly one day decided that they were going to be water mammals and started living in the water and growing fins.

I explained to Hunter that what the video was saying that no, elephants actually didn't turn into other animals but that God had specially designed the manatee with all of its incredible features. So even though he did get his facts a little mixed up, it did show that he was absorbing it, and later, once it had already been stored in his brain, he was reflecting on it, sorting it out, and analyzing the information with his growing amount of understanding. Give kids the facts, they'll figure out the rules that govern them. Which, might I add, stands as another reason for not waiting till we think that kids can understand before exposing them to interesting and advanced subjects - with little kids' ability to absorb raw facts, they have the benefit of absorbing and storing the information now, while being able to understand it deeper and deeper as they grow.

Here is a little clip off some of the content of these great videos...

"And now will I shew thee the truth..."

Daniel 11:2

Hunter is 4 years, 2 months old

Self Esteem

So today I playfully asked Hunter (which I have many times before), "Who loves you the most in the whole world?"

To which Hunter confidently replied, "God!"

"Who else?" I probed, hoping I was up there at the top of his list.

"You!" He said, right on cue.

A moment of silence went by, then he blurted out,

"And I love myself, too!"

"Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name."

Psalm 91:14

Hunter is 4 years, 1 month old