ezra on learning

eric and i can hardly believe the things that ezra's little mind has soaked up at such a young age ... he has been at our montessori school since august (at first 5 mornings a week but in december he transitioned to 3 full days a week), and he has learned so much!!! after being moved up from the toddler to transitions class after just one week, he came home knowing:

- the 7 continents
- the days of the week
- the months of the year!

yah, we were pretty impressed. (it's also reassuring all those $ aren't going to waste!)

the things that they teach him at school honestly never would have occurred to us to teach him this young. ie, a few months ago ezra and i were reading a noah's ark book, and he pointed out, "look mom! that bird has webbed feet!" me: "!!! where did you learn that ezra?" e: "school!" me: "do you know what webbed feet are for?" e: "yep, for swimming in the water!" check, yep, that's right, kid-do!

just the other day, ezra held his fist up at breakfast and said, "look, mom! an 'a'!" sure enough, i see my kiddo holding up a sign-language "a" with his hand! again, "ezra, where did you learn that?" "at school." "of course you did, son." this week, he's been doing b and c on his own, too! he gets a kick out of trying to make the shapes with his hands, especially the c. :)

we've discovered that their spoken language lessons are sinking in at school, too.

me: "ezra, how do you say 'hello' in french?"
e: "bonjour!"

while playing trains, "uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis ..." his pronunciation isn't that bad either!!! makes the Spanish-major mommy's heart SO proud!

just the other night ezra started talking a lot about planets and stars. delinquent mommy and daddy had not yet read the lesson plans for the week from the teachers, so we weren't quite prepared for this conversation while we were putting on jammies for bed time ...

somehow ezra started talking about planets, a word i had never heard him use before.

me: "ezra, can you tell mommy one of the planets' names?"
e: "ummmm....saturn!"
me: "any others?"
e: "mercur-mercur-mercuree!"
me: "wow! that's great, sweetheart! any others?"
e: "pluto ... wait ...naaaaaaaaah (that's his new word, "naaah" = he sounds so old when he uses it!)
then teaching moment for mom and dad ...
(ezra laughs and goes into a funny voice) PLUTO IS NOT A PLANET!!!!"
me in my head: my mind starts racing furiously to remember if pluto isn't a planet, and then somewhere deep in the recesses of consciousnesses i remember a headline or two during my post-collegiate experience about scientists discovering that pluto really isn't a planet, and then it occurs to me that my kid is actually right!
me: "ezra, that's right!!! holy cow! any other planets?"
e: "um, well, the sun, but the sun is NOT a planet!"
me: "that's right, what is it?"
e: "it's a star!"
me: "sure is, big guy! i can't believe you know all this!"
e: "yeah, it's round ... like a BIG ball!!!"
at this point, i'm just dying.
me: "ezra, do you know what would happen to you if you touched the sun?"
e: "no?"
me: "you would BURN UP becuase it's so hot!"
e in all seriousness: "oh no mommy, then i would get a boo boo, and i would need a bandaid, and i don't like bandaids. i don't think i would like that!"

wow. props to you mommio. you rather successfully crashed THAT rocket ship of a planet lesson - how could i forget our little fella's sensitive spirit!?! :)