Conversations with Jacob
Of course Jacob and I talk a lot, and I'm always happy to explain things to him. I try not to be pushy though, keep it fun instead of "being educational". Lately it's gotten pretty wild....
Out of the blue Jacob says "I want to learn all about aerodynamics". Huh. I wonder where that came from? Rocks and Robots camp? Something in a book he read? I have no clue. Kids are such information sponges, and now Jacob has access to a very wide range of information. In addition to friends and school and summer programs, he's reading everything from Calvin & Hobbes to "young adult" novels. Marty gave him "the dangerous book for boys" for his half birthday and that's a great source. Plus Jacob has discovered Google and Wikipedia. The cat is well and truly out of the bag!
So I tested the waters with a bit about how air flows around things, like moving cars (we were in the car at the time.) He was interested and asked more questions, and came back to it a few more times. Pretty soon we've covered different shapes and how they have different coefficients of drag, from bricks to raindrops. And how did raindrops know to get that shape anyway? And how Cd and frontal area affect how much energy it takes to move a car, and what gas mileage it can get. Could you make a car shaped like a raindrop? Would it matter if the tail of the shape was at an angle? I'll need to go back to my textbooks if he asks another three questions!
Last weekend we went to Ohio for a few days. We played some word games in the car, I thought he might fall asleep but he didn't. I said I was tired of playing hangman, can we find something else to talk about? So he says "OK, can you explain the housing bubble to me?" "Um, that's a bit complicated." "That's OK dad, we have lots of time." Huh.
So darned if we didn't end up having a 45 minute conversation (not a lecture, a conversation) about economics and politics and the housing market. Frankly I was pretty shocked. What could I do but play along? It was very strange.
Same thing on the return trip, he says "tell me more about economics". Uh, I'm barely scratching the surface of that subject myself. But I went through the basics of supply and demand, using an example of an Indian tribe selling seashells. He asked good questions and told some stories about what he thought would happen, I could see him trying to work out the relationships. Then we went on to discuss world events and the price of oil and gas.
In both of these conversations Jacob said some very interesting and introspective things about wondering what the future will hold, what changes he'll get to see in his lifetime. He's thinking about what these world events might mean to him, not only today but in the years-distant future. Wow.
Hang on everybody, this is going to be a wild ride.
Out of the blue Jacob says "I want to learn all about aerodynamics". Huh. I wonder where that came from? Rocks and Robots camp? Something in a book he read? I have no clue. Kids are such information sponges, and now Jacob has access to a very wide range of information. In addition to friends and school and summer programs, he's reading everything from Calvin & Hobbes to "young adult" novels. Marty gave him "the dangerous book for boys" for his half birthday and that's a great source. Plus Jacob has discovered Google and Wikipedia. The cat is well and truly out of the bag!
So I tested the waters with a bit about how air flows around things, like moving cars (we were in the car at the time.) He was interested and asked more questions, and came back to it a few more times. Pretty soon we've covered different shapes and how they have different coefficients of drag, from bricks to raindrops. And how did raindrops know to get that shape anyway? And how Cd and frontal area affect how much energy it takes to move a car, and what gas mileage it can get. Could you make a car shaped like a raindrop? Would it matter if the tail of the shape was at an angle? I'll need to go back to my textbooks if he asks another three questions!
Last weekend we went to Ohio for a few days. We played some word games in the car, I thought he might fall asleep but he didn't. I said I was tired of playing hangman, can we find something else to talk about? So he says "OK, can you explain the housing bubble to me?" "Um, that's a bit complicated." "That's OK dad, we have lots of time." Huh.
So darned if we didn't end up having a 45 minute conversation (not a lecture, a conversation) about economics and politics and the housing market. Frankly I was pretty shocked. What could I do but play along? It was very strange.
Same thing on the return trip, he says "tell me more about economics". Uh, I'm barely scratching the surface of that subject myself. But I went through the basics of supply and demand, using an example of an Indian tribe selling seashells. He asked good questions and told some stories about what he thought would happen, I could see him trying to work out the relationships. Then we went on to discuss world events and the price of oil and gas.
In both of these conversations Jacob said some very interesting and introspective things about wondering what the future will hold, what changes he'll get to see in his lifetime. He's thinking about what these world events might mean to him, not only today but in the years-distant future. Wow.
Hang on everybody, this is going to be a wild ride.