You can take a kid to an experience, but you can't make them remember it.

[netmouse]

I don't remember being 2. or 3. But it still sometimes catches me off guard when Rosie doesn't remember something from then, either. She's just 4. It wasn't that long ago!

Brian brought up the Eclipse this morning, and I was telling her about solar and lunar eclipses, using acorns to demonstrate the orbits involved.

"You've seen a solar eclipse," I said. "Remember? We went over to Steven and Laura's, where they had the chickens? And Steven set up a telescope and projected the shape of the sun on a big board?"

Nothing.

"And before that we went to a big field where there were lots of people, and you got to look through a telescope?"

Nope.

If I show her pictures, she might remember then. But right now? A big blank. I'm sure it's in there, informing her understanding of the universe. But all we can do is keep giving her these experiences. We can't control which ones will get recalled.

Comments

[muffyjo]

Two is pre big words, so she might not have had a thing to apply which means "solar eclipse" but the picture will jive with the thing that's actually her memory. I have a couple of those I worked out a few years after the fact when I put things together later. So don't be so convinced she doesn't remember, she might just not be able to connect that memory with words.

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

Two was not pre-words for Rosie. She had over a hundred signs and over 30 spoken words by 17 months. By 2 she was mastering spoken words so fast I had stopped keeping track. But it definitely was pre- a lot of words and concepts, and by now she knows enough people named Laura that I'm sure Steven and Laura's house is not enough to identify it.

I think part of the reason this sort of thing takes me by surprise is sometimes her memory of something is startlingly clear and detailed, and she's very good at putting it into words.