ease of learning

I am struck, as I march wearily through Evidence, at how effortlessly Nathaniel learns. We adults, we must choose to learn something new. We dedicate ourselves to learning consciously. If we didn't want to learn anything new for the rest of our lives, we could. Plenty of people drift unresisting along that route through life.

Kids are different. They don't choose to learn. They simply do. Their brains flex unconsciously, absorbing and cataloging their world. Their bodies advance inexorably forward, first wiggling, then crawling, then walking, then running. There is no choice.

My husband and I were sitting on our bed with Nathaniel this afternoon while he played with his blue rubber ball. We lazily watched him as he stared at it intently, moving it around, throwing it over his shoulder and retrieving it.

At one point he looked directly at us.

"It's a ball!"

My husband and I looked at each other, flabbergasted. "Sweetie," I said slowly, "what do you have?"

Nathaniel smiled at us proudly, enunciating very carefully. "It's a ball! It's a ball!"

Sentences. Some bustling neurons in his brain fired madly today and now he communicates in English sentences.

It's not entirely out of the blue, of course. He's had the cadence of sentences for months. His babbling gradually took on a characteristic up and down beat, forming declaratory sentences and questions. But why English today? What changed? What motivated him to string together his little vocabulary so atypically today, as opposed to yesterday, or tomorrow?   

As I struggle through Evidence, forcing my own brain to absorb that little bit more, I'm a little envious of my boy and his elastic brain. He gulps up new experiences unflinchingly and without hesitation. Me, I'm not so unflinching. As much as I am intrigued by law, I am planning to collapse into an exhausted, mind-numbed ball as soon as finals are over and sleep for three days straight. I flinch, I do.

Comments

[Marcin Tustin]

Incredible. I've never thought about how a child goes from babbling noises, to words, to actual sentences, even though I've tried at various times to learn various languages (largely failing due to lack of discipline, I might add). Simply astounding.

I was planning on writing a blog post that mentions the few blogs (and indeed websites) that I still read. I have to say this is one of the most compelling blogs, and this post the most mind-bending thing I've read in a while.

[bt]

Yay! How fun.

[transmogriflaw]

Marcin, thank you! I always appreciate it when somebody enjoys a post.

bt, yes - very fun!

[Rayne of Terror]

Nathaniel will allow you to sleep for 3 straight days? You are a lucky mama.

Congrats on his use of sentences. I remember when my friend's young daughter (greater than 18 months, less than two) told me she wanted to bring two books with us. I was so bowled over that she could use such an abstract concept like 2.

Good luck slogging thru the last of your finals. I hope you have a restful and fun winter break.

[transmogriflaw]

Rayne, I should clarify - he's in daycare in the morning, so I plan to sleep for three mornings.