I'm sure I've about this before on here but I can't seem to find it again. Has anyone else had there 4ish year old going from relatively normal in their interest in things to just suddenly wanting to know everything? I feel like I've been caught napping. I'm not sure if DD is feeling more confident now she is out of kindy or if I'm just noticing more since we got the scores back but she has gone from being interested generally in many things (like ND kids) to suddenly needing to learn chess, Spanish, wanting a microscope, reading, pre bedtime discussions on worm anatomy etc.

It's amazing, just wondered if anyone else would like to share.
plus I'll be putting a few more questions in the resource area....

We've had it go in waves. When DS is in awanting to know everything phase it is often a wanting to sample everything. Just in case, I'd suggest borrowing things until you know how deep the interest is.

DS does that- he "hibernates" for awhile then springs into action.

Agree with Zen Scanner- hold off on expensive purchases until you see the depth. I will say that most of what we bought got well used eventually- but the microscope could have waited.

Waves over here, too.

Foldscope! It's not that far from being a mass market reality.

ah good - normal then. Re the microscope, we are hoping to hold off but seeing as just about every 2nd question is what's in blood, no not platelets, what's in those - whats a cell etc I think we might have to stump up. She is a real biology nut though.

Love the "hibernate" term. My son does this as well.
He just asked for an erector set and a weather station. A microscope is a good idea. Has anyone started music lessons?

Try youtube. Old faithful library may have good books about histology (I seriously doubt it if not medical library) but internet is just a click away. And unless you have H&E stain or similar stain sets, you won't be able to see much or not exciting enough.

Magic school bus has some good stuff on blood platelets being oxygenated/ deoxygenated. I just can't remember what episode it is that has that. We do have the magic school bus book on getting the flu and it talks about red blood cells, white blood cells. We read that one and then went to Michael's craft store and my son saw some beads on a necklace that looked like red blood cells and identified them. I had no idea that he took anything in from that magic school bus book but this sparked his interest for the subject, although it was short lived and a while ago.

DK books have lots of different biology based stuff for kids that is detailed but fun. We had one that looked at different body systems including haematological, gastrointestinal and musculoskeletal. Google DK The Human Body book, it's awesome. Comes with a DVD rom and I think there is an app too.

Do any of you experience this as well-emotional intensity just before waking from "hibernation"? Our DS, 3.5, will become very emotional and then have a huge leap in an interest. He'll be devasted all day and then the next he'll wake up and ask to do "homeschool" for hours.

Yup, though in our case the emotional intensity can go on for weeks or months as we watch intellect leaps and bounds at the same time.

Our second son ds4, very much changes in leaps. Yet, unlike his older brother who was eager to show us what he knew and ask for more; this guy fools us every time! It's kind of funny. Just trying to keep the boys need for learning fed.

What do you mean by this, Melessa? Does he not want to share his knowledge, is he more introverted?

GGG- my younger son is not introverted. He just won't perform unless he wants. For example, he has refused to speak one word of Spanish. Then, while he was sitting in the bathroom, he recited 1-20 in Spanish. I found out he knew how add and subtract by playing a Cars math game. We had never shown him any math before since he won't even answer questions like "what number is that?" It's very frustrating to try to figure out where he's at. His latest obsession is wanting to know how everything works and how things are made.

Yes!

Add to the list sleep disturbances, like napping for 4 (!) hours or being wide awake until midnight (obviously not uncorrelated). DS-almost 3 is on a cognitive spurt these past two weeks. I've seen his natural waking time slip back from 8:30am to 10:30am and his nap stretch to 3, even 4 hours. I just run with it.


DS behaves similarly. He won't often sit and read to me, but he'll write out words with his magnetic letters to leave me "secret codes".