Totally NOT What I Expected to Hear

Nor was it something I was "wanting" to hear.  A bit ago the younger girls and I had a very nice, quiet dinner together as dad and the older kids were in town helping a friend put a swing together.  I took the wonderful opportunity (as I try to often but rarely succeed) to pick their brains and start an "intellectual" conversation.  As it was it went something like this:

So, we are going to go around the table and I want to know something that each of you learned today.  (Meaning with their school work)  And this is what I heard through excited shouts as they each tried to be the first to share.

I learned that Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise are throwing a $100,000 birthday party for their daughter....Oh, and Jon and Kate plus Eight are working through their problems 'behind' the scenes.  And did you know Kate Hudson is Goldie Hawn's daughter.  (actually no, I didn't know that.)  Another child pipes in with:  Bummer, and Mel Gibson is getting divorced.  Yet another child babbled something off about Angelina Jolie getting booted or something or other.

Man, what's this all about.  How do they know these things without having a  TV.  WHERE does this come from?  Seriously, I boot up the computer and  the YAHOO home page is only up for a few minutes at a time so how do they take this all in?  Now if only I could get them to apply this effort to their studies!!

Update to this post.  My children informed me that this post is NOT finished!!  They are absolutely right.  So in all fairness, the conversation did turn to them sharing things that were of actual worth.  Here is how it went.  

One child learned that a man named William Penn named the state of Pennsylvania.  Another child informed me that Captain John Smith was captured twice, once by the Turks and once by the Indians.  My 6 year old retold the story about Joseph and all about his life in Egypt.

Now this is more of what I was looking for!!  Maybe next time we won't have to go through the dramatics before getting to the point!!