children amaze me. their little brains are like sponges. the amount of information they soak up in their early years is mind boggling to me. most of it is necessary and expected...you know skills like walking, talking, potty training, etc. but then there is the information they soak up because they find it interesting...song lyrics, jokes, the names of all the 'cars' characters, etc. it is the latter information i find the most fascinating.
i spend my work days with a 4 year old and a 2 year old...both boys. they both love music and can sing entire songs by michael jackson and katy perry as well as the regular songs all kids learn. they are both very proficient in naming dinosaurs. but the skill they have both obtained at an almost alarmingly early age is their knowledge of 'star wars' universe.
i am a 'star wars' fan. i couldn't begin to tell you how many times i have seen the original trilogy and i have seen episode 1 and 3 numerous times as well. but here i am, watching episode 2: attack of the clones for just the second time. it is, in my humble opinion, awful. seriously george lucas, what were you thinking? padme and anakin rolling around in a field of wild flowers? anakin using the force to feed padme fruit? it is sappy, sentimental cliches. and the rest of the movie isn't any better.
i digress. i'm watching this movie because the two boys i nanny have never seen it. it is the only 'star wars' movie they haven't seen yet so as a special treat tonight as i'm spending the night with them, we are watching 'star wars episode 2: attack of the clones.' or at least we were since i just put them to bed. i have a feeling they are going to dislike this movie just as much as i do though. too much time watching anakin and padme fall in love and not enough time spent watching lightsaber battles and other forms of action. i think they'll find it boring. at least that means, they won't make me watch it over and over.
these boys are a fount of 'star wars' knowledge. i used to think i knew my stuff. i would never consider myself a 'star wars' fangirl, but i knew a decent amount about the original trilogy, enough to be impressive in most circles anyway. then i met these boys. i don't know who introduced them to 'star wars' but these boys love 'star wars' like other kids their age love 'cars' or 'toy story'. while i still have them beat when it comes to knowledge of places in the 'star wars' universe, they can tell me the name of every character that comes on screen. yesterday we were having a lightsaber battle. when i asked the 4 year old who he was his response was 'ki-adi-mundi'. i had to look him up in order to know who he was. i had never even heard the name. after looking him up, i recognized him, but i still didn't remember ever hearing his name mentioned in any of the movies. obviously it must of been as he remembered it, but man, did i feel stupid.
now if i could just get them interested in soaking up knowledge about the alphabet.
There's a good chance that 'ki-adi-mundi' isn't mentioned in any of the movies. There are all kinds of Star Wars supplemental materials from which the trivia could have been harnessed--books, video games, whatever. At those kids' ages, I suppose there are fewer options, but whoever introduced them to the Star Wars world could have helped them pick up these tidbits.
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