~5 year old: Dad, what’s the biggest building?
D: That’s a good question. Do you mean what’s the biggest building in Boston, or in the United States, or in the whole world?
5: In the whole world!
D: That’s hard to answer, because they keep building very tall ones, but I think it’s in Malaysia. Why don’t we look it up on the internet when we get home?
5: Yay! Let’s look it up on the internet! That’s the most fun!
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By age 9 that kid will be the object of an intervention and full-blown LeechBlock therapy.
Last night’s bedtime question from my 4 yo daughter: “Daddy, how do people breathe?” Tonight’s question: “Daddy, why does the earth spin around and around for daytime and night time, and what about the moon and the sun?”
I was so relieved to learn that “I don’t know; let’s look it up!” is not only acceptable but a fantastic, exciting answer.
Our four-year-old is full of questions about how the world works. More than once, she has said, after listening to me explain something at length, “That’s OK Mommy, I’ll ask Daddy later.”
But she, too, loves looking things up on the internet (”Let’s see if the computer knows”). In fact, the other day she managed to successfully google something herself without our knowledge. It happened to be “strawberry shortcake,” but it may be time to look into some kind of parental control software…any recommendations?!
I remember being obsessed with how eyes work. I demanded a special trip to the library to look up “eyes” in ALL the encyclopedias (i.e., not just the one we had at home).
Owww, Andrew Keen (of Cult of the Amateur fame/infamy) would hate that - corrupting America’s youth with Web 2.0. But hooray for inquisitive kids, technology and adaptive parents! Now how can I stop my pre-literate 2 year old daughter continually asking why? Why? Why?
I think this is fantastic. A whole little generation of do-it-yourself researchers in the making!
To take this conversation down an intellectual notch, my 3 year old asked me “what a Starbucks is” today when I was sipping my frap.