Smarter Than Your Average...Dinosaur?

Matthew has been really into Dinosaur Train lately.  This PBS kids show is available on Netflix and he watches the available episodes over and over and over…but I really can’t complain because he is learning a ton.  He walks around the house singing the songs from the show and is constantly telling us great things that he has learned.  (Seriously, he’ll walk up to me and say, “Did you know that there are a lot of mammals that are nocturnal?”  And the crazy part is that he knows exactly what he is talking about and can explain it to you.)  A couple of weeks ago he got out the hole punch and a bunch of paper so he could punch “train tickets” and play dinosaur train with me.  Just for the record, it is really hard to fold laundry with itty bitty t-rex arms.  But at least he let me bring the laundry on the dinosaur train, so I really can’t complain.  Besides, we had fun.

This evening while I was making dinner, Matthew was trying to teach me to play “hyper hypothesis” like they do on dinosaur train. (It kind of freaks me out that not only does my 4 year old know the word “hypothesis,” but he can define it correctly and knows that the plural is “hypotheses” not hypothesises.)  Apparently the point is to make a big guess as quickly as you can.  So I started throwing things at him, trying to figure out how to play the game. “I have a hypothesis that Matthew will clean up his lunch.  I have a hypothesis that dinner will be really yummy.  Like that?”  Apparently I was doing it wrong, so I tried again:  “I have a hypothesis that Daniel will grow up to be taller than me.”  Without even blinking, Matthew shot back, “No!  That’s just a fact!”

I laughed.  Hard.  Still giggle when I think about it.  What a smarty farty pants.