Are You Smarter Than a Three Year Old?

Okay. I know most parents like to believe that their children are geniuses and everything they do is ahead of the curve. I am no different, and I am always amazed at the things they come up with. Take this morning, for example.

I am home from work today because I've been VERY sick and tried to ride it out. Finally, I just couldn't make it any further and had to break down and go to the doctor. Well, this morning Eliana (Lia) came up to me and said, "Mommy, E is for Eliana." I responded, "Why, yes it is. E is for Eliana." At the time, I was sending another copy of my substitute lesson plan to my partner teacher and giving her some instructions to pass along to the sub. Since I was on the computer, I asked Lia to point out an E to me (She knows all of her letters and numbers, mind you). To my surprise, she pointed to the number 3. I said, "No, Lia, that is incorrect. That is NOT the letter E. That is the number 3. Where is the letter E?" Lia looked at me with doubtful eyes, almost as if she thought her mommy, the teacher, was an idiot. She then pointed to the letter W. I said, "No, Lia, that is NOT the letter E. That is the Letter W." At that point, lia had had just about enough of me. She said, "No, Mommy. That is an E. See?" She then turned the computer keyboard to the right so that the W looked like an E (actually it looks like the Greek symbol Sigma, but you get it). Then, she turned my keyboard around until the number 3 looked like an E. At that point, she said, "See, Mommy. It's an E."

My response, you ask? There was nothing I could say but, "Well, I see that you are right when you turn the keyboard around. But just out of curiosity, if you didn't get to turn the keyboard around, which letter would be the E?" She replied, "Here's the real E" and pointed to the letter E. Then she got off my lap and announced that she was going to play with Daddy instead.

Sigh. Whatever!