Marco…Polo…

I love it when the kids come home from school and tell me about what they are learning. It reassures me that they are in fact paying attention, and that it has at least peaked their interest if they think to share it with me.

Here is a part of the conversation Landon and I shared at dinner tonight.

Landon: We are learning about Marco Polo in school.

Me: Oh yeah? What do you know about him?

Landon: Well…he was like a merchant or something and he wanted to travel to places so that he could get stuff because he liked to buy stuff. He was from somewhere…hmmm…I think it starts with a P…

Me: Peru? Paraguay? Pompeii?

Landon: No, I don’t think any of those. Um, I think it was in Europe. Yeah, Europe. Anyways, he wanted to get new stuff because he had stuff but he wanted to try new stuff and bring the stuff to China.

Me: What is the “stuff” that he wants to buy?

Landon: Spices. I think. Yeah, spices.

Me: Ok, so what happened to him?

Landon: He got in trouble and was put in jail and he wrote a book. It’s a really old book but people still read it and liked it.

Me: Did he die in jail? I still don’t understand why he’s famous.

Landon: I don’t know if he died in jail, we haven’t gotten that far. I don’t know why he’s famous either. But you know that game you play in the water? Marco Polo?

Me: Yeah. Why did they name that game after him?

Landon: I don’t know if they did or not, but that’s a fun game.

So, as you can see, he is taking some of this “stuff” in. I’m just hoping they won’t be having a test on it tomorrow.