Children are born inquisitive, they’re natural little scientists, theorists, inventors and some, just plain dreamers. Ask any random two or three year old about the sun or skies, how cars move and airplanes fly.
They’ll usually have some kind of answer, most often times, funny and creative, but when they don’t–look out. Here comes the dreaded, ‘why?’ Why is the sky blue? Why does the sun move? Why does the moon come out at night? Why is that man wearing earrings? Why, why, why?
Sometimes we can answers these with short answer that temporarily stops the onslaught, but some answers still leave them mystified and beg for more questions even after your vast explanation of the sun, the earth and the rotation of the planets. But mommy–Why? Ahhh!
Good thing you can find answers in books. Let’s say your son loves insects of all kinds, you call him the ‘bug whisperer’ and sometimes you find unfortunate victims of your child’s passion all over the house, in tiny little pieces.
Oh well, sweep it up and grab a copy of, “Everything Bug”. He’ll spend hours pouring over the pictures, looking at antenna’s, wings and proboscis’ until he falls asleep with that book tightly clenched in his pudgy little paws. Let’s say your daughter is obsessed with the stars.
Even in her nursery she stared at her plushed moon and planets, as they slowly rotated above her and played ‘twinkle, twinkle little star” into the wee morning light.
Now that she’s older, she waits for the sun to go down and insists on sleeping outside, even in the snow. Why do they twinkle, why are they white and what do you mean they’re still out in the day….I can’t even see them! But now you can sit down with her and together learn all about stars, planets and the heavenly bodies, the book, “Do Stars Have Points?”
Let them explore the limits of their knowledge. And encourage the ‘why’s’, though you sigh heavily and grit your teeth, over and over again. Learning involves questioning. When you seek to answers those budding questions, an amazing thing happens: you learn!
“The beginning of wisdom is found in doubting; by doubting we come to the question, and by seeking we may come upon the truth.” – Pierre Abelard