Now who's the teacher?
The other night, M and I were on our way to a local political dinner - it was just a "Meet the Candidates" event, and since I already know the candidates quite well, I took him with me so I'd have an excuse to get out of there early.
It was dark out and he told me he saw a star in the sky. Since he was sitting in the back of the car and looking straight out, I asked him if he meant the fairly bright light in the sky ahead of us. He said yes.
Being a former astronomy geek - as a kid I was totally into the stuff - I felt it was my duty to explain to him that the light he saw was most likely not a star, but a planet. He asked what a planet was. So, I explained to him - in the simplest terms possible, since he IS only 3.5 - that some stars have planets that circle around them, kind of like children walking around a parent. I told him that the sun that he sees in the sky every day is actually a big star - although far from "big" in terms of its relative size to other stars (see - I told you I was a geek) - and that we lived on a planet we called Earth.
There was silence for a moment, followed by this pearl of wisdom:
"Daddy, the sun isn't a star. It's a...a...it's a sun." Pause. "Like me."
Since there was really nothing more I could say on THAT subject, I let it go and told him to be a good boy at the event and say hi to certain people when we were there.
And speaking of which...I had an oh-so-brief moment of ever-so-slight panic when I was talking to someone and lost sight of M (he had been playing with some bumper stickers off in a corner). It wasn't a huge room, so I wasn't THAT worried, but I was concerned he had gone out into the restaurant part of the building and was bothering customers. But no... Where is my kid? Sitting on the Mayor's lap, telling her all about school, and his brother, and who-knows-what-else. I went to get him, apologizing to her, but she said, "Oh, please! I love M! He just hopped right up in my lap!"
I suppose that's a good thing. Hmmm... I wonder if she'd be interested in babysitting some time?
It was dark out and he told me he saw a star in the sky. Since he was sitting in the back of the car and looking straight out, I asked him if he meant the fairly bright light in the sky ahead of us. He said yes.
Being a former astronomy geek - as a kid I was totally into the stuff - I felt it was my duty to explain to him that the light he saw was most likely not a star, but a planet. He asked what a planet was. So, I explained to him - in the simplest terms possible, since he IS only 3.5 - that some stars have planets that circle around them, kind of like children walking around a parent. I told him that the sun that he sees in the sky every day is actually a big star - although far from "big" in terms of its relative size to other stars (see - I told you I was a geek) - and that we lived on a planet we called Earth.
There was silence for a moment, followed by this pearl of wisdom:
"Daddy, the sun isn't a star. It's a...a...it's a sun." Pause. "Like me."
Since there was really nothing more I could say on THAT subject, I let it go and told him to be a good boy at the event and say hi to certain people when we were there.
And speaking of which...I had an oh-so-brief moment of ever-so-slight panic when I was talking to someone and lost sight of M (he had been playing with some bumper stickers off in a corner). It wasn't a huge room, so I wasn't THAT worried, but I was concerned he had gone out into the restaurant part of the building and was bothering customers. But no... Where is my kid? Sitting on the Mayor's lap, telling her all about school, and his brother, and who-knows-what-else. I went to get him, apologizing to her, but she said, "Oh, please! I love M! He just hopped right up in my lap!"
I suppose that's a good thing. Hmmm... I wonder if she'd be interested in babysitting some time?