The Philosopher Queen

Trapping Raina in the car results in 1) immediate sleep or 2) deep ponderings about her world.  The most recent questions:

- What does the Tooth Fairy do with all those teeth?
We brainstormed:  eat them, trade them, sell them to get cash to give to kids, make art, make Haunted Houses, make lawn decorations.  Her favorite (and her suggestion) was that the Tooth Fairy made clunky necklaces.  I liked the thought of their being one tooth fair per city or state so that the work was divided evenly, and they had to trade in their teeth for a living wage.

- Some people in India speak English.  How did that happen?
We talked about what happens when people move, what people do to stay comfortable, what information gets passed along to children, and how/why some people learn another language that their family may not speak.  The migratory patterns of humans tell an interesting story if you leave out all the death and carnage.

- How come I only see the moon in the morning and at nighttime? Where does it go during the day?

We had a great conversation about rotations, solar systems, sunrise/sunset, other stars, size of the sun, galaxies, and then spent a lot of time looking at the Hubble Telescope pictures. She was fascinated to hear different stories of how people explained the sunrise/sunset.  Her favorite was praying to the Sun God that the sun would come back each day and then celebrating when it did!  I was so proud of her for using the word "evidence" in our conversation.

Comments

Anonymous said…
My little one asked in the car today why she could see the moon even though it was light out. I did a terrible job of explaining it.
KSW said…
One of the many challenges of having a kid who asks so many questions is that I have to be mindful of what I say in response. When I don't know the answer, I just say so and then say (in the words of the true teacher I am) "let's find out together!" And when I try to explain it and it doesn't come out right, then I come back to it later with a better explanation. Again, I'm a teacher who wants her student to have a full and complete understanding of the topic.

Raina had the same question about the moon. Maybe your little one and mine are on the same exploratory path.

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