Conversations with a 5 year old : the fairness of weather

The news on the radio mentioned this week's solar storm, and that got our guy's attention. "What are they talking about?" he demanded, and I explained. Energetic "electromagnetic" particles from the sun attacking the Earth, earth's atmosphere forming a protective shield" and so forth were pretty dramatic and exciting for him to hear.

Then I added, "you know what, when the solar wind hits Earth's atmosphere, the sky glows with amazing colors - it looks so beautiful. It's called an aurora. But only people up north, close to the arctic will see that".

"But that's not fair", he went. "Why can't we see that?"

"Well, they are suffering freezing weather most of the year, while we are enjoying beautiful sunny weather. Is that fair to them?", I countered.

"Yeah..." he said and went silent.

After about a minute, he goes: "You know what, I think we are more lucky. Their aurora weather will be for only one day. Our sunny weather is for many many days!"

Conversations with a nearly 5 year old

(on being told about the "sibling preparation class" he is going to go to before the new baby arrives)

him: why do I need this class?
me: to learn how to handle and behave around the baby
him: how will I learn?
me: a nurse will teach you
him: how does the nurse know how to handle our baby?
me: because she has handled a lot of babies before
him: how did she know how to handle the first baby?
me: she learnt from some other nurse
him: how the first nurse know how to handle the first baby?
me: huh? God told her.
him: how did God know
me: God knows everything. keep quiet now!

Conversations with a 4.5 year old : The Car

H: this is the best car in the world, you know that?

b: why?

H: it’s automatic, and it’s the fastest; it’s better than the BMW and Camry

H: appa what’s the best car in the world?

b: Ferrari, McLauren…

H: this is better than them

b: OK

H: it needs no gas, no batteries

b: how does it get power?

H: from the sun

b: oh, so it’s solar powered?

H: yeah, and we don’t have to drive… it goes by itself

H: it’ll not even crash – it’ll never get a ticket

b: wow; so we just sit inside and it’ll drive by itself?

H: yup; it can also park by itself; if the music stops it means it has parked, and then we should get off

b: cool. how do we tell it where we want to go?

H: we don’t have to; it can read our mind

b: wow!

H: appa, do you like my orange car?

b: I love it!

Conversations with a 3 Year Old

A Teachable Moment

Me: Did I tell you that you should not jump around when climbing stairs?
Him: Yes
Me: What happened last night?
Him: I jumped and slipped, and rolled down the stairs.
Me: How did that feel?
Him: It hurt.
Me: What did I tell you about hitting bats on stuff?
Him: It's a bad idea.
Me: What happened just now?
Him: I hit the bat on the woofer.
Me: And what has happened?
Him: The bat became broke.
Me, with an air of pomp: So, what have we learnt from all this?
Him, sincerely: Nothing.


Curb that curiosity!

Him: Why have you propped this toy up, but not that one?
Me: Because that one is stable, but not this one.
Him: Why is that one stable, but not this one?
Me, muttering: It's hard to explain that to you.
Him: Why is it hard to explain that to me?
Me: Look! There is an air plane there!

Humpty Dumpty

Ever thought about what the heck that nursery rhyme means? Does it make any sense?

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.

Humpty Dumpty is usually shown as an egg. May be that's a metaphor, or may be it's literal. Either case, why do you need horses for the repair job? May be make crazy glue?

Also, why so much violence in a children's rhyme? (Jack and Jill is another example.)

But it turns out, there is more to Humpty Dumpty than a foolish egg who chose to sit on a wall. It's said to be anything from a simple riddle to a historic annecdote from mideaval England. Look it up in wikipedia.

to learn like a child

I've read and heard many times about the amazing capacity of kids to learn and the lamentable decline of that ability as we age. As with everyone, I had assumed I am the exception to this rule. Reality has been slowly, but surely hitting home - for several years now. Observing my 17 month old son constantly is not helping my self esteem at all! He regularly amazes me by remembering things I tell him just once.

On the other hand, more and more regularly, I find myself evaluating the "use" of any new piece of information. Because it takes such an effort to learn something new, I'd rather use some excuse to ignore it.

There has also been this rather disturbing trend of taking things for granted. And then looking pretty stupid. Case in point: the other day, it was reported that the bathroom door was stuck. The knob won't even turn. I, being very smart (eh hum), quickly - and correctly - guessed that the lock should have been engaged when the door was closed, and now, since no one was inside to unlock, we are stuck. And I knew what the solution was. There would be a small hole in the knob, and I just need to insert a small needle like object; and the lock will disengage. I was wrong about that. (And I was foolish enough to make a cocky statement to the effect that people should watch and learn as I solve this mysterious problem with magical simplicity).

After struggling with a ball-pen refill for several minutes, it dawned on me that it wasn't that trivial. It also dawned on me that, I had just assumed that that's how it worked - never once bothering to verify that assumption. Once humbled, I did what was needed - took apart the lock in another door which I could observe from both sides, figured out how it worked and applied that knowledge to unlock the door that was stuck. (It turns out that this lock needs a small screw-driver to be inserted through that hole in the knob; and if you know exactly what to feel for and exactly which way to turn it, you can unlock it. I don't think this is a great design; but that besides the point).

We immediately realized how lucky we had been that we discovered this potential hazard before our little one locked himself up inside a bathroom. So we got hold of a knob-protector (which is supposed to deter a child from locking himself in), and installed it.

While we were discussing and demonstrating to each other how one can get locked in, our little fellow had been watching. Because, this evening, he was trying to open a door by turning the knob, and when it did not turn, he tried to undo the catch, while uttering "open, open".