In the category “You learn something new every day,” I am not keeping up with the rest of the class when it comes to dinosaurs. I outta be. It’s not like I don’t get enough practice. I’m serious. My grandson is at the toddler stage when dinosaurs have taken over his world. It used to be cars, and it’s not that cars aren’t important anymore; it’s just that they’ve been moved to elective studies at this child-led learning school we both attend every Wednesday.
I L.O.V.E. being a student. I did great in the cars course, and I am happy to show off my skills in sorting by color whenever I’m called upon to do so. But nowadays, the child leader is ending our car classes earlier and earlier, always with a “Let’s play dinosaurs.”
Grandma often brings dinosaur library books from the library for Show and Tell, so dinosaur class usually begins with books. Remember, this is Dino 101, so pictures are our main focus here. My only job is to listen, but I am allowed to add color commentary if the need overwhelms me. Things like, “Wow! Look at that long tail!” or “Wow! Is that a turtle? Are turtles dinosaurs?” When no one knows the answer, we turn the page.
When the books are done, we move from the couch to the floor, where, it turns out, most of our classes are held. Here we learn the names of the plastic dinosaurs — triceratops, T. Rex, stegosaurus, brontosaurus, ankylosaurus, and there are about 40 million more names that have gone right past me. The postoriasoriasis? The what? When I come to one I don’t know, I ask him, “What’s this one?” and he says, “Talk about it,” and I say, “If I knew, I would. That’s why I was asking you.”
This naming of dinosaurs is pretty much the substance of our studies. And while I am not so good at names, well, names and faces and tails, there are no quizzes at this school, no pass/fail. But I suspect even the teacher is hoping for improvement. I figure if I can just hang on until we get to Dino 201. That’s when we’ll be covering carnivores v. herbivores. Dinos at War.
For our listening pleasure this morning, The Tokens …
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