inside that mind

One has kids, and goes through a period of existence where you have a pretty good idea about what your child knows, and where they are receiving their education. (First from you the parent, then later school, and from assorted media. But you are pretty aware of what they are learning.) And then one day your son surprises you with assorted things he knows, and you have no idea how he knows such things. It is strange and wonderful. Yesterday at dinner Mr. Jenner was talking a bit about letters that aren't commonly used/exist so much in the modern English alphabet. Suddenly Senor Onion mentions, "Oh yeah, you mean like Thorn." And I was a little thrown, "how do you know about that?" "Oh I read it somewhere."
Then this morning he and I were playing our geography game. It was a game born out of trying to lessen his grumpy behavior on the drive to school. I would announce, "We aren't going to school today. We are going to... somewhere far off in the world." And it has always drawn him out of a bad mood. And we might talk about what something is like in that particular place, or facts I might know about the place. (Yes, it is serious geography nerd times.) Miss Biscuit always wants to go to somewhere warm. She told us to drop her off in Mexico. Senor Onion suggested Canada today. We were talking a bit about how varied the weather is. I mentioned Prince Edward Island and he said, "Oh that place has this sand that makes odd noises when you walk on it. Singing Sand." And again there was something I didn't realize he knew about. (and I didn't know that Prince Edward Island had singing sand.) I asked him how he knew about that. "I watched this video about it. I like looking up stuff about geography."
I was just so tickled that how alive his natural curiosity is. I don't want it to ever be squashed. (sometimes school can push it down a bit.)
Quiet Senor Onion who likes the things he likes but still likes to surprise me.