Kids stuff
Sabrina:
Sabrina and I were watching Cosmos. Only yesterday she read a little bit of an Isaac Asimov story from “I, Robot”. That is, she read one page and I read the rest. It was a bit above the 3rd grade level. Anyway, Cosmos was also going above that level fast. Carl Sagan had been walking on a beach explaining that there were more stars in the universe than every grain of sand on every beach in the world (and we hold the stars/grains of sand that we can see with the naked eye in one handful).
Then he segued into Einstein’s Special Relativity. It was too deep. I turned to Sabrina and asked, “You’ve heard of Einstein, right? He’s possibly the most famous scientist in the world.” (yeah, Newton’s up there too, but Einstein has better PR). “Einstein wrote the theory they’re talking about now, the theory of relativity.”
She said, “Yes, well, I’ve heard of him, but I thought it was just stories. You know, like zombies, not real.”
It didn’t hit me until an hour or so later, but that’s how a lot of adult people view science: just stories, like zombies. Sabrina is eating up knowledge and has a pretty good grasp for a 3rd grader. I’m sure Einstein won’t elude her for too long. But people who believe that the earth was created 6,000 years ago, well, how can they tell the difference between Einstein’s theories and George Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead”? Without a healthy background of science and skepticism, good judgement is very difficult.
Ok, off my soapbox and onto a Godzilla movie.
Ian:
Ian is very happy that Godzilla is the “King of All Monsters” and that he fights bad monsters by smashing them into buildings and breathing fire on them. There is, however, an added level of difficulty at the moment: Ian is also in the “why” stage. Normally I can keep up with this by explaining that the sky is blue because certain colors of light are scattered into the atmosphere while others pass more directly through and other semi technical explanations to his variety of questions. This time, however, I fell upon the unknown.
Ian: Why does Godzilla breath fire?
Me: (sigh) I don’t know Ian.
Ian: You should ask mom.
I just sputtered for a bit and gave up.
Sylvia:
Not to be left out, Sylvia was in dog mode this evening. That means that all communication is in the form of barks, yips, tail wags, and nose rubs. She will continue to be a dog until such time as dogs are boring or chocolate is mentioned. Either she is very creative or this is the early stage of lycanthropy.
Sabrina and I were watching Cosmos. Only yesterday she read a little bit of an Isaac Asimov story from “I, Robot”. That is, she read one page and I read the rest. It was a bit above the 3rd grade level. Anyway, Cosmos was also going above that level fast. Carl Sagan had been walking on a beach explaining that there were more stars in the universe than every grain of sand on every beach in the world (and we hold the stars/grains of sand that we can see with the naked eye in one handful).
Then he segued into Einstein’s Special Relativity. It was too deep. I turned to Sabrina and asked, “You’ve heard of Einstein, right? He’s possibly the most famous scientist in the world.” (yeah, Newton’s up there too, but Einstein has better PR). “Einstein wrote the theory they’re talking about now, the theory of relativity.”
She said, “Yes, well, I’ve heard of him, but I thought it was just stories. You know, like zombies, not real.”
It didn’t hit me until an hour or so later, but that’s how a lot of adult people view science: just stories, like zombies. Sabrina is eating up knowledge and has a pretty good grasp for a 3rd grader. I’m sure Einstein won’t elude her for too long. But people who believe that the earth was created 6,000 years ago, well, how can they tell the difference between Einstein’s theories and George Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead”? Without a healthy background of science and skepticism, good judgement is very difficult.
Ok, off my soapbox and onto a Godzilla movie.
Ian:
Ian is very happy that Godzilla is the “King of All Monsters” and that he fights bad monsters by smashing them into buildings and breathing fire on them. There is, however, an added level of difficulty at the moment: Ian is also in the “why” stage. Normally I can keep up with this by explaining that the sky is blue because certain colors of light are scattered into the atmosphere while others pass more directly through and other semi technical explanations to his variety of questions. This time, however, I fell upon the unknown.
Ian: Why does Godzilla breath fire?
Me: (sigh) I don’t know Ian.
Ian: You should ask mom.
I just sputtered for a bit and gave up.
Sylvia:
Not to be left out, Sylvia was in dog mode this evening. That means that all communication is in the form of barks, yips, tail wags, and nose rubs. She will continue to be a dog until such time as dogs are boring or chocolate is mentioned. Either she is very creative or this is the early stage of lycanthropy.