He’s mastered the solar system. Now my toddler just needs to work out where Ireland is
‘MERKERY!’ my son shouted, sticking his hands in the air for emphasis. ‘Well done!’ cried his teacher with polite surprise, as I’d just asked him to tell her which planet was closest to the sun. He likes to be quizzed on planets, because they’re some of his favourite giant objects, and I like quizzing him about them in public because it makes him look like a toddler genius, earning me vicarious praise.
His fascination with planets came about accidentally, since we use a picture of Earth from space to show him that Ireland and England are separate countries. We do that because he’s an English person and we don’t think it’s ever too early for them to learn this, and also because he often demands to see his grandparents at a moment’s notice, and we want to explain why he can’t. ‘This is Earth,’ we say patiently, ‘and this is England, and this is Ireland, where Nana, Grandad and Granda live.’ From this, he’s developed a fascination with planets and he now loves both dinosaurs and their natural enemies (giant space rocks), particularly the eight planets in our solar system.