My daughter was helping me clean the fish tank this weekend.
"What's this?" she said, holding up a plastic nozzle attached to some rubber tubing.
"It's a little bit like a vacuum for the fish tank," I explained. "It sucks up the fish poop from the bottom of the tank."
"Is it loud?" she asked nervously. She seems to have recently acquired her brother's fear of vacuum noises; unfortunately, some of his anxieties seem to spread like a virus.
"No," I assured her. "It works using gravity, so it doesn't make any noise at all."
"What's gravity?"
"Gravity is a force that pulls everything back down to the ground. It's the reason that you come back down when you jump up or a ball comes back down when you throw it up. Gravity sucks everything right back down to the ground." I thought I remembered something about theories of gravity as a particle and something about Einstein and the way gravity warps space time, but I decided (thankfully) not to get into all of that. I think too much, yet am very foggy on details, which tends to be counterproductive when dealing with small children.
"Where is it?" she asked, looking around.
"You can't see it. It's invisible."
She thought for a minute and then, clearly connecting this discussion to her box of crayons and her frustrations with drawing, said, "Gravity is white, because white is hard to see. Hm, unless it's on black. So, I think you can only see gravity at night, when it's dark out!" Another pause ensued before she said, holding up the tank vacuum and calling it by a new name, "And this gravity sucks balls back down to the ground!"
For the remainder of the time I was scrubbing the tank, she threw a ball up in the air, pointed the tube at it and shouted, "I'm sucking it back down to the ground! I'm going to show Brother my gravity when he gets home from school!"
She's quite clever. Unfortunately, I'm not as good at teaching as she is at learning!
I suck at explaining things, especially abstract ones or "invisible" ones. And then my own imagination interferes and Leo is going to think there is an actual man in the moon and I feel for the science teacher who will get him in her class.
Your kids are clever and funny and bright and imaginative. I love hearing their stories.
My dad used to explain things to be all wrong and he did it on purpose! It was a fun joke for him. I would ask him how to spell words and he would give me the spelling of an entirely different word. Something told me the letters weren't write but since dad is saying it, it's obviously correct.
gravity sucks balls. heh. I'm actually 12.
i am so awful at explaining things...especially when the kids start saying "why" after i try to explain. i start getting frustrated and i end up saying "because! why don't you google it if you don't like what i told you!" thank god for google. doesn't work with my little one, though. at lease, he still takes "because" as a really good answer!
It's funny how much kids her age understand and also totally don't understand at the same time. I was recently explaining to my niece about how her tattoos were ON the skin, while mine are IN the skin. It was very cute.
P.S.
She said "sucks balls."
Children have a very unique take on things no matter how they are explained to them. I tend to vacillate from being in awe of their creativity to being jealous for having lost my unobstructed creative spirit to adulthood. How grand for you to have a front row seat for such wondrous things. How gracious of you to share it with those of us who don't have that kind of access.
That just makes me laugh and smile. I love kids minds. they entertain me so very much. i wish i could go back to thinking like that again.
They are not daft are they!!!
It is so difficult to explain things to kids...
i love anything having to do with your kids. gravity does suck balls.
hmmm, gravity sucks balls... I'm going to show brother my gravity.... maybe fodder for people who find you by your next post.
Thanks for sharing, mpj. I'll have something to smile about next time I vacuum.