Watching Phoenix watch “television” (Netflix on her laptop) is fascinating. She typically views science shows and BBC – right now she’s watching “MonsterQuest”. As she watches she flips browser windows and Googles and looks up photographs and information on Wikipedia, etc. It’s a highly active process, not at all the zoning-out zombieville Americans love to claim all American children are doing, all the time.
She has a brain like a steel trap (it runs in the family; my father had it, I have/had it but I’ve since half-deteriorated mine with booze and Will Ferrell movies). For a long time her favorite book was Camping & Wilderness Survival: The Ultimate Outdoors Book – she’d take it on roadtrips and such and just pore through it. I’m sure it would still be in rotation but it was, sadly, one of the casualties of our aquatic-car (note to self: get her an “new” copy for Christmas; extra note to self, at any point she may start reading your blog so quit discussing surprise-plans ahead of time). So anyway, we’ll be taking a walk in the woods and suddenly she’ll tell me how to apply a square elbow bandage or instruct me on which mosses are edible. Don’t worry, I don’t remember any of this. I just figure to keep the kids close when the apocalypse comes. I think they’ll be wilier than most.
Ralph took some kids out up to the wet and rainy cemetery trails; they made a little video:
(TINY MUSHROOM AT 02:01)
Oh, her watching sounds like my internetting. Drives m husband crazy!
I used to read encyclopedias before the internet. It drove my mothers insane with all my fact telling, but it kept me quiet for days on end.
It’s a highly active process, not at all the zoning-out zombieville Americans love to claim all American children are doing, all the time. Isn’t it funny that we do? I’ve stopped letting television pose as a boogeyman. If they wanna watch the thing, I don’t care (because we only have DVDs, no antenna or cable/satellite). They get tons of outside time and their imaginary play is quirky and awesome, so… Plus with 6 kids I just quit caring. How awesome am I? 😉 Speaking of awesome, Phoenix is super cool with her multi-faceted knowledge. (I used to read the encyclopedia for fun too. Knowing every documented breed of horse is an underappreciated talent.)