hot cross buns

i never quite new what precocious meant until i came face to face with it a few months ago. its name is isabella. she is six years old and armed with a 1/2 sized violin, which every monday i attempt to teach her to play. i say attempt because our 30 minute lesson is usually only about 15 minutes of playing. the rest is isabella introducing me to blackie the plastic, winged creature from the field museum and stretch joe-joe the stuffed tiger, or cataloging her scrapes and temporary tattoos, or informing me of how she and her friend made a hamock for the family guinea pig--and it actually worked!!

the best was the lesson when she said that she was doing a science experiment and, "of course her hypothesis" was correct. for the most part i'm half-amused, half-amazed by this little gal. but as i stood there counting the number of syllables in hypothesis, i felt a certain irriation bubbling. what the hell does this six year old know about hypotheses. she's probably just repeating a word she heard her teacher say at school. she has no idea what it actually means. so i played dumb and asked her what hypothesis meant. and, of course, without blinking, she explains that it's one's guess in science. it's something you test. well, duh! who doesn't know that?! she was sitting on the couch as she went on to explain the experiment in more detail. after several minutes i felt we should get back to playing, and i asked her to play one of her songs. she didn't really move and then exclaimed, "my toe is stuck!!" i look down to see her toe stuck in her violin. the girl who throws out words i didn't learn until 5th grade suddenly has her toe stuck in her violin. all i could do was laugh. and help extract her toe from between the pegs.

despite isabella's brilliance, she still is just a kid. so while i was surprsied that she had difficulty understanding the concept of a roommate, it did make sense seeing as she had only lived with her family before. after going to great length to explain that a roommate is similar to living with a mother, sister, brother, father, etc. and receiving blank stares i gave up and just stared back. then isabella ventured, "so it's like a maid, but she doesn't clean?" yes! exactly. i'm so glad we've cleared that up!

she's learning a lot, but the next thing i need to teach her is that when you're six, you can't tell a story and say, "when i was younger..." you are young. yesterday you were young, today you are young, and tomorrow you will still be young.