Prehensile

My 6 year old daughter E and 4 year old son C love audiobooks and podcasts. They are obsessed. I know they listen to all kinds of things and to me, it would be hard to learn when I’m consuming so much content.

When we were all hanging out on our summer trip, they were talking to Uncle R. We were talking about animals and different characteristics of them. We had finished building arches for a Lego monkey game that was way too complicated, so it was just a normal Lego session. Because it was on their mind, we eventually started talking about monkeys.

C was talking about cool monkey facts and said they were cool because their species had prehensile skills. I know he is almost 5, but I had no idea what he was talking about. I thought he made up the word. When I asked him what he meant, by brother R asked if I really didn’t know what it meant. Apparently he did and wanted to test me on it.

I definitely didn’t know what it meant and C explained that prehensile means their appendages, like their tail, can grab things. My brother knew this too and I was so curious to know how they all knew the meaning expect for me. Of course it was from an animal podcast and my brother is also much more well read than I am.

It’s been a few days since then and I still can’t believe my kids know what prehensile means. I think about that a few times a day and am just amazed that they can actually absorb information they listen to. I sometimes hate audiobooks and podcasts because I don’t want them to be dependent on them for entertainment, it if they are learning, maybe it’s actually a great thing.