The Things That Come Out of His Mouth

We all know kids say the darndest things...But sometimes you wonder where the things they say come from.

I do my absolute best to answer any and all questions that Toby asks me, even if I don't really know the answer. Like if he asks how they make cars, I'll say something like "Well, i would imagine that a lot of different people would have to do different jobs...someone has to make all the plastic parts, someone has to sew all the fabric parts, and someone has to mold and make all the metal parts. And then they would have to follow some pretty tricky instructions to put it all together and make it work."
He may not 'understand' everything I say, but he's satisfied that I gave an effort. If I really don't know (Like how exactly they harvest bananas) we'll look it up online or at the library.
It amazes me that he even thinks to ask or say some of the things he does. Some of it is stuff that I've never thought of or questioned.
I think taking the questions seriously encourages conversation and narrative talking with kids. It teaches them to answer clearly when asked something and to elaborate if they can.

A lot of people ask if I'd ever home school, or if we do 'lessons' at home... and no, I don't think homeschooling will work for us, but we do have some really interesting impromptu lessons I guess. I don't sit down with him and say "today we're learning this", but it just all kind of comes out in the course of a day.
We take a walk and name trees and plants. We watch birds at the feeder and count and add and subtract as they come and go. We doodle and draw and I'll point out when a shape looks like a letter or number or symbol, which piques his curiosity and he asks how to write more letters. He helps me bake and cook and we talk about safety and colour and size and fractions. We do yoga or soccer and talk about body parts and balance and strength and energy. We read constantly and he understands phonics and syllables and rhyming words. He's taking piano lessons and within that he's learning sound, rhythm, counting, fractions and co-operation.

Now, seeing all the written out, maybe I shouldn't be questioning where all his questions come from. He's so used to learning that he just wants to know more.
I've been keeping a list over the last few months of things he's asked me or said and I've done my best to answer. Some of the things may not seem significant, but to a four year old who really doesn't 'need' to care about these things, it's pretty impressive that these are the things he comes up with.

-How to they make batteries?
-Do kangaroos have springs inside them?
-What does 'latest invention' mean?
- How do they make metal gates?
- From inside the car, the fireworks sounded like tap dancers.
- How does cold water turn to ice?
- How do they get the skins on bananas?
- What does 'substitute' mean?
- How do they make cars?
- How does the slot at the Library get the books back on the right shelves?
- How can airplanes fly if they don't flap their wings?
- My feet have super powers from all the food I eat.
- There's actually skeletons under there for scientists to find.
- How do you say __________ in French?
- How do they make utensils?

I feel that there is more... 100% there is more... just those are the ones I thought to record.

It blows my mind sometimes to listen to him. It definitely goes to show that kids absorb more than they often let on.