Seperate and Distinct

My seven-year-old has a life all his own now — or at least, a part of his life — apart from me. He has encounters I cannot share, and he experiences his world in ways I can no longer completely control. I can't say I'm completely comfortable with this, though I have become resigned to it. I'm also intrigued.

I've had the slightly unsettling notion, once or twice over the past several months, learning of experiences he's had in school that I knew nothing about. (Often these will come up in conferences with his Teacher.) Not because they were embarrassing, or anything he'd have reason to conceal, they're just — I suppose they were simply overlooked.

And from time to time he'll say something, or make passing reference to something, or ask a question about something, and leave me completely flummoxed, wondering "Where could he have heard that?"

Today, for example, was a big question, a very big question — about religion. I've been very impressed with the range of material they're covering in his Second Grade class (even envious, as I remember my experience to have been rather dull by comparison), but somehow I don't think the subject has come up there. (At least, I can't say I've noticed it in his homework.) And I wouldn't expect a discussion of the existence or non-existence of God to be a common topic among the other seven-year-olds. (But you never know.)

I don't mind answering — or, at least, trying to answer — these questions. I don't even mind being drawn into a discussion with my seven-year-old that I wouldn't have expected to have for a few more years. But I wish I could somehow learn more about the ways he learns about his world.