Originally Posted by ultramarina
Math is an especially clear example here because it's not something you really teach in casual conversation--you know, we talk about history, biology, etc at the dinner table, but we don't factor at the dinner table. (Maybe you guys do.)

I found myself explaining Bayesian updating of priors to DS2 the other day when a cab just about ran us down in the street against its red light. I said something like "what are the odds?" and it just sort of popped out contextually. Odds are he won't absorb that kind of material but, being an extrovert, I tend to vocalize a lot of my thoughts. I think he gloms onto some odd topics by dint of this habit of mine.

It's also much more interesting for me to revisit topics I like than to say in a banal falsetto, "Oh look at the doggie-doggie going pee pee on the tree!" Shudder. (In no way am I implying that you or anyone here is guilty of spewing that kind of nauseous tripe. I just offer it to contrast the kind of nonsense I hear most children being subjected to.

So the combination of a nerdy verbal parent and neat stimuli makes for some interesting opportunities to learn, as long as learning isn't what the parent expects from the interaction. smile

What is to give light must endure burning.