Aminals and ossicones

Hazel recently had her first trip to the zoo, and she loved it! She was observant (Ephant eating. More eating. Ephant eating food.), enthusiastic (More aminals! More aminals!), and covetous (Want giaffe. Want zeba.).

The gorillas at the Atlanta zoo are visible from multiple spots, including one where the people are inside a building with a glass wall that lets you get a pretty close-up look at the gorillas outside. From inside the building, you can also see one of the observation platforms where people can watch the gorillas from outside. When we were inside the building, Hazel was convinced that the people on the platform were with the gorillas, and she emphatically wanted to join them. While pointing at the gorillas and the observation platform, she demanded, "In! In! People in. Hazel in!"

Meanwhile, Juniper smarty pants informed a giraffe caretaker, "I'm very smart," and was treated to a lesson about ossicones (the horn-like protuberances on the top of a giraffe's head). Our little scientist was delighted. Part of me wants to teach my daughter some modesty and help her learn that it isn't really polite respond to a simple question about what giraffes eat by telling everyone how smart you are. But I suspect that modest four year olds are far less likely to have in-depth conversations about giraffe biology, and I'd rather cut off my toes than squash Juniper's curiosity and love of learning. As someone who supports activities to encourage girls' involvement with science, technology, engineering, and math, I feel especially protective of Juniper's love of science--but I confess that I do still cringe a little when she proclaims how smart she is or how much she knows about topic X. I mostly ignore the pride issue, hope that will sort itself out as she gets older, and try to shift the conversation from smarts to learning (how fun it is to learn new things, the fact that she knows about topic X because she reads and asks questions, and how cool it is that there is so much MORE she doesn't yet know about X).