Creators of bemusement

be·muse  (b-myz)

tr.v. be·mused, be·mus·ing, be·mus·es

1. To cause to be bewildered; confuse. See Synonyms at daze.

2. To cause to be engrossed in thought.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/bemusement

I love words, don't you? And this one, it is a pleasure just to listen to it... but it also is an accurate

description of how my children seem to affect me.

    

     I will give you an example: On a road trip, parents are exhausted and want to take a nap. Little boys are playing quietly -- one bent over his Didj (LeapFrog® Didj Custom Learning Gaming System) while the other drew and colored and talked to himself. Periodically the older boy would throw out a math equation with which he needed help and his father would answer. Then came 'THE' question: "Dad, how much is 64-7?' Before Dad could answer, younger brother chirped '57' -- Dad concurred '57'. Younger brother, pleased as punch says 'See? I told you, 57!' Now to explain my bemusement -- the younger boy is 4.75 years old and has never actually engaged in formal math study... He learns, quite literally, by osmosis. Still, sometimes I have to shake my head. I have worried that he wasn't experiencing formalized preschool, that somehow that would 'set him back' -- now I wonder if maybe it is preschool that does that?

    

     Moments like this convince me that Charlotte Mason (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Mason) was right: Children are born people. The only real difference between children and adults is experience. Certainly my sons demonstrate daily that they are quite capable of thinking and understanding in quite sophisticated ways. When he was only two, my eldest son, playing in our backyard with a family friend (who is himself of Mensa level intelligence) suddenly looked up and said 'And now we must do something truly difficult: we must walk the stone path of destiny!' Our friend stared at him, open-mouthed. My two year old grinned and said 'Let's go kill Droids!' This is the same child who, comforting his little brother who'd expressed a fear of death, said 'Death is not the end. It is just a change.' Okay!

    

     The littlest brother is no stranger to wit himself. Watching Shakespeare's 'Midsummer Night's Dream', he picked up on a pun that I, with all my YEARS of experience, had missed. Looking at me, cheeky grin fully apparent, this four year old chants 'My BOTTOM's my ASS' -- oh, heavens, child! How could I have missed that? Did you ever catch that one? Sigh. Perhaps Shakespeare, whom everyone seems to place on a pedestal and whose writings are reserved for higher level learning, is better suited to children -- at least as far as his comedies go? His work is certainly packed with puns...

    

     Shakespeare also offers a rich mine for discussion of character. To date, my sons insist that of the male characters they have encountered, they prefer Benedict (Much Ado About Nothing ) to Petruchio

The Taming of the Shrew) or Oberon(A Midsummer Night's Dream) and Titannia to Kate (As my youngest says 'She is strong and I like strong women!') This last led to a wonderful question: I had remarked to my sons that it seemed to me that Shakespeare always provided a contrast in his women -- strong Kate versus manipulative Bianca, clever Beatrice versus insipid Hero. My youngest thought about this momentarily and then asked 'Does he do that with the men too?'  The simple answer, 'Yes' but again, I had never really considered it. Children see clearly what Adults often miss.