@reuygkl I'm a mathematician and when my oldest was about 3 he wanted me to read math research papers to him because he saw me reading them and he didn't want to be left out. Those were the easiest put downs in history.
@bellota Our youngest saw me watching the How the Universe Works episode about the sun after he woke from nap one day. For the next couple weeks anytime it was just he and I his choice of what to do was to watch that episode. He was so proud to announce the new little nuggets of info he learned to my wife at his earliest chance.
@reuygkl I got in trouble with my parents when they found out I was avoiding recess through most of the lower grades (I think they discovered in like 5th) by reading the classroom encyclopedia and dictionary. I was not an outdoor kid so when I finished the “age appropriate” material I started on every book in sight.
To this day my wife finds it hilarious because if I’m in any way “out of it” (overtired/drunk/frustrated) then my vocabulary will increase. Normally when I’m talking it’s with fairly easy to understand terms but then I’ll get really frustrated and it’s like I broke out a thesaurus. It’s basically become the end of fight trigger when my wife has to ask me “what the hell does that mean” because I’ll stop to explain, realize I’m now explaining words, and we both are like “ahh yes… Libriomancer needs a break”.
@christina420 I took four years of German in high school and was lucky enough to do a student exchange thing with a small group from my school. Everyone spoke English really well so practicing our German was actually pretty hard, until they started getting drinks in them. We went out to bars and clubs all weekend so I had to actually use my limited knowledge after having drinks. For the next couple of years after high school I could speak German pretty well after I had a really good beer buzz but had to take a moment to think about what I needed to say when sober.
@vesper818 Part of that is inhibitions are lowered when drinking. It's the same reason kids pick up language easier because they make mistakes and get corrected but the important thing is they try.
When your friends started drinking and switched to their native language you were forced to practice and didn't care too much when you made a mistake.
@reuygkl My son also loves non-fiction, especially science. The other day he stormed off in a huff having chosen to watch The Jungle Book only to discover that it’s “a story!!” and not a documentary about jungles.
@reuygkl Background knowledge is actually a huge indicator for reading comprehension success in school. Ride this train as long as you can, and if he seems especially interested in topics, embrace that with some deep dives!
@reuygkl We get all kinds of reference books about animals from the library, my boys love them. My 4 year olds know more about sharks than most adults including myself.
