-The capital building
-the Stanford mansion
-Fort Sutter
(the 4th was a jelly belly factory tour for fun since it was free).
On each tour the kids were well behaved and asked astute questions. For example, when the tour guide of the mansion was talking about the gas lights and how to light them, my daughter asked "how do they light the first one? It would be too dark to see."
the tour guide replied, "I.. well... no one has ever asked me that before... I suppose they had a candle or a kerosene lantern or they lit the before it got dark"
But everyone in the tour group was impressed with the questions our kids were asking.
At the end one lady said
"I'm a teacher of gifted children, and your children are asking questions indicative of higher level thinking"
As we drove in the 3 hour trip I began to explain to them the three branches of government and how they work, and what we were to see, and their level of involvement as citizens and how they can vote, call representatives, and even attend sessions.
Then I asked 'who is the governor of California" and they both answered Jerry Brown.
I was surprised they were almost right... so I talked about the difference between governor and governor elect.
Not to be too proud though, Calvin kept calling the current governor,
"Governor Schwarzen hagger"
which was funny.
Being able to take my kids to places like that and not only not worry about being embarrassed by loud noises or whatnot... but to be impressed with their questions is such a huge blessing for us as a family.
One other thing though... if you're a parent, have you ever been impressed with a moment that said your kids were better than you?
My kids came home from a trip to the store the other day. Each of them snuck in privately to show me what they had bought for christmas gifts.
I was completely floored.
Not only did they think of buying gifts for everybody, all the cousins...
but they bought the best of the best. I mean they spent top-kid-dollar on the GOOD stuff. For example, if my daughter wanted a pet shop thing, my son didn't simply buy her a pet shop thing, he thought and thought and bought the one she might like the best, regardless of cost.
They spent ALL their money.
And so I told my son, "son this is great but I don't want you to be sad if your cousins don't give you any gifts, they may not be thinking like you."
and he replied.... sorry choked up a bit here...
"I know that dad, to me the funnest part is giving something really cool to someone else."
my kids have always had generous hearts. I mean we've always had the problem of them spending their money... on someone else..
When I was a kid, I was never thinking like that... around Christmas? I'd be good if I remembered mom, dad, and the grandparents. And I always figured who to spend the most money on, etc.
But my kids are thinking well beyond that, and spending much more money than I ever would have to get thoughtful nice things.
In the area of generosity, my 9 and 11 year old kids, outdo my 9 and 11 year old self.
And I'm awed and floored by it.
