Yesterday was the 133rd running of The Kentucky Derby.  The Derby is an important event in our house.  And this time it was made even more special because the Queen herself was there - Elizabeth II!  How cool is that?  (I love the Queen, always have!)  Since we do not have TV, my sweet mom recorded the entire 5 hour program for us - can't wait for it to arrive.  We make it a family event.  We buy a paper on Sat. and look at the line-up.  Each one of us picks the horse we want to win.  The criteria hinges on things like a cool name for the horse, great colors on the jockey uniform, whether we like the trainer or not (my son, Chad, has his favorite trainers, more on this later) or just close your eyes and point to a name.  This year, Chad picked the winner!  I was so happy for him. 

This all started a few years ago, when I happened to get a Saturday paper and there was a huge, brightly-colored article about the Derby.  All the jockeys' colors were listed, as well as a complete rundown on the horses' stats.  My son, Chad, was fascinated.  He started looking up horse racing in our Almanacs and memorized info much like a baseball fan.  We are a race family, we like Indy car and Formula 1 racing, so horse racing was a natural fit.  We all got involved in the Triple Crown series, which includes The Kentucky Derby, The Preakness and Belmont Stakes races.  If the same horse wins all three of these races, they win The Triple Crown (and a lot of money!)  The horse, however, only gets a wreath of roses around its neck and extra feed.  Hmmm ... don't tell them they are getting the short end of the stick.  They might go on strike!

It has been fun watching my son absorb so much information.  He's learned a lot of other things along with the horse and trainer info.  We've discussed to great length the good and bad about horse racing.  We absolutely do not wager any bets in any way (not even with each other) and we discuss why we feel that it's not a good place to put your money, as well as what the Bible says about gambling.  But there's been lively discussion about all kinds of things, you'd be surprised at the human drama of horse racing.  We cheer for the winner but we nearly cry for the losers.  I love it when one of my kids shows interest in a subject, to the point that they start researching it on their own and doing projects or writing articles about it.  It's amazing to watch all the learning going on and I didn't really do a thing!  I have found that the more I try to push further learning in a child's unique interest, the sooner they lose interest.  But if I let them go, help them find resources and listen/discuss when they are wanting to talk, their brains just blossom.  It's a beautiful thing. 

My middle son, Alec, is currently absorbed with the Yeti and Bigfoot legends.  I really don't know where he got this latest obsession.  All on his own, he created a report with pages for each creature, complete with drawings.  He's created his own character, Small Foot, and included that in his report.  He made cardboard feet and made foot prints in some dirt in the yard and then took photos of them - but we haven't had the film developed yet.  His brother has a new digital camera that none of us really know how to use but Alec asked him to take photos of him posing as Bigfoot but then some idiot (namely, me) managed to erase them from the computer.  Boy, was I in the dog house for that!  Anyway, while this is certainly not the subject I would pick for him to learn about, he is doing a lot of writing, thinking, researching, drawing, creating, calculating, on and on.  You get the picture.  It really doesn't matter what they are using as the catalyst, they learn, learn, learn!  As long as the subject is appropriate and not objectionable to you (families vary on what is appropriate, you know).  I really debated whether I should allow the Bigfoot thing because I don't believe it exists so we did a lot of debating fact vs. legend.  My favorite philosophy on this kind of thing is, "When people can't explain something, they make up a story to have it make sense to them."  Something like that.  We brought in the Biblical issue, would God make a creature like this?  How could it survive in our world today without being seen, for real?  Etc. 

As with the horse racing.  Moral issues:  Gambling.  Owning and training a horse costs a lot of money - is it worth it?  (It costs $50,600 to enter a horse in The Derby!)  What about all the hoopla over a 2 minute race?  It's great to discuss these types of issues, based on a subject your child is already interested in.  We've even discussed excessive drinking (mint juleps are popular at the Derby.)  But for the most part, we just have fun with it.  The internet has been useful in that we can actually see the racing facility and stuff.  Now we are looking forward to the Preakness.  It's been awhile since one horse won all three races (Chad could tell you what year and what horse).  This could be the year!