Curious Musings of a Four Year Old

Johnny looking disgusted

Sammy finally spotted me with the camera

Making waves with Maya

Sams feeding himself

Johnny and his new school teacher

It's true, I don't generally post very introspective, thought-provoking or profound writings in my blog, but rather just report on the current happenings of our kids for the benefit of long distance friends and relatives. Mine is a blog with a "keep in touch" purpose and not much more. Lately I've been inspired by some friend's blogs to delve a little deeper into the psyche ... okay the psyche of a four year old. LOL! So, it's not that much of a departure from my usual ramblings, but here goes.

I've been reading books on developmental stages of children trying to get some insight into what Johnny can really grasp intellectually at this age and from my own observations, I will say Johnny definitely seems to be curious about the physical "construction" of the world around him. His questions of late prove challenging to answer at a level that I think he'll comprehend. Much of the time his incessant "why?" seems to be out of habit or just for the sake of extending the dialogue, but it has left me very curious about what level of explanation he can really undersand. A sample (as well as I can remember it from earlier this week):

J: Mama, why can I not see air?
M: Well honey, the pieces that make up air are so small you can't see them with just your eyes.
J: What happens if I could see air?
M: Sometimes we can, if it has enough moisture/water in it or dust.
J: Why's I can't see air all the time?
M: If we could see air, then we wouldn't be able to see anything else around us. If I could see all the air between you and me, then it would block my view and I couldn't see you.
J: Why's I can feel air then?
M: Good question, I guess it's because our skin is sensitive to the feeling of the little pieces that make up the air called molecules that are too small for our eyes to see.
J: Why does air feel hot or cold sometimes?
M: Well, when I mist you with the hose outside and then the breeze blows, it feels cool on your skin because the water is evaporating from your skin into the air which takes some of the heat away and makes it feel cool.
J: What happens if water wasn't wet?
M: Uh, what?
J: What happens if water wasn't wet?
M: Let's see, well I guess it would be dry then (okay, how do you answer stuff like this?)
J: Why's every time water stays together in one piece?
M: Uh, remember those teeny tiny pieces I told you about earlier called molecules? They hang onto each other pretty tight in water so they stick together in clumps, but you can still easily separate them by scooping out some water with a cup or something.
J: Why does water stay lying on the ground and why doesn't it float up into the air?
M: Well, that's called gravity. The Earth has gravity that keeps things sitting on the ground.
J: What happens if we didn't have gravity?
M: We'd float off up into the sky.
J: No I wouldn't, I'd just run into a building and I wouldn't float away.
M: Well honey, without gravity, the building would float away too, so that wouldn't work.
J: Why does my ball float on top of the water?
M: Water is heavier than air so the heavy water sinks to the bottom and the light air floats up to the top.
J: What happens if water was lighter and floated to the top?
M: Well, sometimes it can, if it's frozen like an ice cube ... then it will float.
J: Why? (okay clearly I asked for this one)
M: Well when the water turns to ice, the teeny tiny molecules that are stuck together push farther apart and so it becomes lighter ... does that make sense?
J: No.

I don't want to insult his intelligence ... or more accurately, his comprehension level, so I try to explain things to the best of my ability without using cutesy baby words and trite answers. I don't know how much he is actually grasping but I'd rather explain to him about sugar turning into bacteria on his teeth and eating through the enamel than tell him there are sugar bugs living in his mouth. Personally that would freak me out to think there were bugs in my mouth. I sometimes wonder if I'm making a mistake by not engaging Johnny in all the typical fantasies of youth like Santa Claus or pretending magic is real, etc. We always make sure he knows what is real and what is pretend and he still seems to have a pretty good imagination for make believe play ... although typically his fantasy play is still based on fairly realistic situations, like being in a different character role rather than being able to breath underwater and talk to winged dragons. I guess we'll leave that stuff to McCaffrey. LOL!