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

[sorcycat.livejournal.com]

I've noticed something related with my kids. They immediately assimilate new information and they don't record it as new or an event. They claim they "always knew it."

[dionysus1999.livejournal.com]

Memory is a fascinating subject. We know from research that much of what we think we remember is partially or totally fabricated. The brain is still organizing itself at age three, and while those kids will remember routines and familiar people, incidents are hazy at best. I'm highly skeptical of anyone who claims memories before age 4 or 5.

Rosie is one of the brightest children I've observed. Her social and communicative abilities were advanced at age three. If she can't remember that lends more support to the idea that retrievable memories just aren't there before that age.

[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.

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

I thought the brain underwent a period of pruning around that age (either 3 or 4)?

By the by, my great-niece remembers meeting you & Rosie--in fact, she was quite distraught that you were moving away. Her remembrance is almost certainly coupled with the trauma she experienced with her knee injury, but she remembers both of you fondly as folks who helped her knee heal/"feel better".

(Of course, it wasn't that far removed in time that you all met, but her younger memory hasn't let go of you yet.)

[cos]

I don't remember *being* 2 or 3, if you were to put it that way, but I definitely remember some things from ages 2 and 3 (and 1 and probably some a little before 1, though I don't clearly know which fell before or after that birthday).