The Sun and the Earth

Kayla's been learning about the day and night sky in science. Her teacher sent me an email asking if I had any gluten-free oreo-type cookies because she was going to be using those in a lesson to represent different phases of the moon. The class also took a 'trip' to the moon and viewed some footage from NASA.

Last week Kayla came home from school with a space mobile. Hanging from strings attached to a paper plate were the sun, earth, star, and moon. On top of the plate it said 'The sun comes out in the day time" so I asked Kayla, "When do we see the sun?" She answered, "In the sky." I was about to rephrase my question, but before I could do that she continued with, "It don't move." Me, "What doesn't move?" Kayla, "The sun don't move."

I was actually surprised by her volunteering that information on her own. Wondering what else she might tell me I asked, "What moves?" Without hesitation she answered, "The earth."

I should be ashamed to admit how surprised, excited, thrilled, and stunned I was; it shouldn't be too hard to remember the earth moves around the sun right? But I was. I was surprised, excited, thrilled, and stunned. I exclaimed to her that she was right and cheered and did all of that stuff you do when celebrating some big thing your child just did.

Because this was a big thing. Out of her whole school day, and everything that was taught that day in all the subjects, she had to pick that bit of information out. She had to retain that information. She had to relay that to me. She understood. She got it. It wasn't a guess, it wasn't multiple choice.

She's learning. That also shouldn't come as a surprise to me. Of course she's learning. I know she can learn. Hello! But she just doesn't always show or tell us what she's learned. Its not every day that we see what she's learning in school. She just doesn't tell us a whole lot about her school day. And this wasn't something I knew she already knew so I wasn't asking leading questions. She told me what she learned.

And I loved it.

This video is from a few days later when we were still talking about it (and Lucas had to have his turn showing what he learned too!)

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