I don’t know, I need to learn

Here’s an exchange I had with my 4 year old while on a recent walk around the pond:

“Papa, guess what: penguins cannot fly.”

“Why is that?”

“I don’t know, I need to learn.”

We were walking past some ducks when he said this so that must have triggered the fact about penguins, which I’m guessing he learned from one of his Yoto cards.

I love that part—that urge to share what he knows. But I also love his response to my follow-up question: when confronted with something he didn’t know, he both admitted ignorance and expressed the desire to investigate further.

Both of those impulses come naturally at his age, so I’m not saying he’s special in that way. I just really respect and enjoy the preschooler’s tendency to declare what they know (or think they know) and remain insatiably curious about what they don’t.