What Does a Five-Year Old Know?

Plenty. You'll find out if you talk to one. I happen to have one (they are great to have around), and I listened to her talking while playing with two cups in the bathtub. "This is the good one, and this one is contaminated," she said.

CONTAMINATED?! I had to ask. She learned the word from one of the kindergarten teachers who was talking to her class about recycling. Did she understand what it meant? Yes. What does it mean? It means when something gets other stuff in it that is not supposed to be there.
That's right.

I'm not pointing out how brilliant my child is -- okay, maybe just a little -- but rather how much kids absorb (she probably knows what that means, too). She can tell me what foods are healthier than other foods and is right most of the time. She can tell me food groups, and why we recycle our plastic, glass, and cardboard containers. She knows about exercise and protein. She knows that plants breathe out oxygen and we breathe in oxygen. I think when I was five, I probably knew what a plant was, but that's about it.

I think that children really do learn a great deal of what they really need to know in kindergarten, if not before then. All the more reason to make sure they are in church "soaking up the Son and having some fun."