I have noticed a difference in how I respond to my girls when they ask questions. When it is J, I give a detailed answer...not just telling her what time it is but answering with the history of timepieces. I have found I have to, as she typically has a dozen follow up questions. The more information I give her at the start, the higher the likelihood I will give her enough to think about. With S, I tend to take the question and give her a one word reply. What time is it is either a number (1:00) or an event (lunchtime).
I recently thought I was shortchanging S…not giving her the full intellectual challenge that I do know that she can handle. She is a smart little girl, I needed to start making an effort to give her more info. Even if she isn’t the question machine J is, she needs to be afforded the same opportunity to collect facts into her brain.
For example -
S: That Truck says 53.
Me: That truck says 53 because it is 53 feet long. See how much bigger that truck is than our car…
This morning the weather was setting up for nasty here. There were flash flood warnings and tornado watches. So the ride to school was peppered with weather questions.
J: You mean it’s going to flood.
(shades of gathering the animals time…)
Me: No they are talking about flash floods. Lots of rain in a short period of time that the ground and drainage systems can’t support.
J: What is a flash flood anyway?
Me: It happens when so much rain comes so quickly that the normal flow of the creeks or the water running into the drains gets backed up and the water overflows into other areas like roads. Remember that time we were at WalMart and it rained so hard and fast for a long time…remember when we went to the car and some of the cars around the parking lot had water way up to the middle of the tires because the drains were not draining the water fast enough.
J: oh yeah – I remember
S: yea - I was wearing my red shirt with the sparkly stripe and….
Maybe, just maybe, S is not yet craving the fact-filled responses…or at least not the facts that I keep in my head.
I recently thought I was shortchanging S…not giving her the full intellectual challenge that I do know that she can handle. She is a smart little girl, I needed to start making an effort to give her more info. Even if she isn’t the question machine J is, she needs to be afforded the same opportunity to collect facts into her brain.
For example -
S: That Truck says 53.
Me: That truck says 53 because it is 53 feet long. See how much bigger that truck is than our car…
This morning the weather was setting up for nasty here. There were flash flood warnings and tornado watches. So the ride to school was peppered with weather questions.
J: You mean it’s going to flood.
(shades of gathering the animals time…)
Me: No they are talking about flash floods. Lots of rain in a short period of time that the ground and drainage systems can’t support.
J: What is a flash flood anyway?
Me: It happens when so much rain comes so quickly that the normal flow of the creeks or the water running into the drains gets backed up and the water overflows into other areas like roads. Remember that time we were at WalMart and it rained so hard and fast for a long time…remember when we went to the car and some of the cars around the parking lot had water way up to the middle of the tires because the drains were not draining the water fast enough.
J: oh yeah – I remember
S: yea - I was wearing my red shirt with the sparkly stripe and….
Maybe, just maybe, S is not yet craving the fact-filled responses…or at least not the facts that I keep in my head.
Topics still to blog... Thanksgiving dinner, KC highlights, Christmas Wishes, Panda naming ceremony
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