Heads up: This post is 9 years old. My thinking may have evolved since then — read it with that in mind.
If we throw a Green Goblin bomb in the bathtub, what’s gonna happen?#
#KidsDiary Dec 29th, 2016 (Luc: 6 years 5 months. Sel: 4 years 9 months.)
While taking a bath, laying in his kids bathtub.
Luc: “If we throw a Green Goblin bomb in the bathtub, what’s gonna happen?”
Me: “If you throw Green Goblin’s bomb into your bathtub? Hmm… what happens when you throw a Green Goblin bomb normally?”
Luc: “It BOOM! And fire comes out.”
Me: “Oh… so what do you think it’s gonna happen when u throw it in your bathtub?”
Luc, think for a moment: “Umm… may be the bathtub will be in fire.”
Nick: “Oh, your bathtub will be on fire huh?” … “So you think the fire is stronger than water?”
Luc: “Yeah, because it’s not so deep like the ocean. If it’s the ocean, and there’s so much water, then it just psst, psst. …” (missed the rest of what he said.)
Nick: “Oh…”
(That was a great “wondering” / thought experiment. He had seen enough explosions in movies and cartoons to wonder about what’s gonna happen when a bomb is under water.)
Still in shower. I was outside.
Daddy, can octopus kill people?#
Luc: “Daddy, can octopus kill people?” (We just watched Finding Dory.)
Nick: “No…”
Luc: “What about sharks?”
(Sel comes in)
Nick: “You know what? I take that back. An octopus has eight tentacles and a sharp beak. If it wanted to, it can probably kill a person, BUT, people are not their food, so they don’t kill people. Same with sharks, only a few types of sharks… err… they bite things to see if it’s edible. Now sharks are very big and strong, right? Their jaws are like this big. So if they bite you on your arm…” CHOMP “Your arm is gone! But then the shark will go: Plur ‘Yuck! Not food. Not food.’”
Luc: “Ha ha ha. ‘Plur. Yuck! Not food.’”
Sel: “Daddy, why you know that? Why you know so much?”
Nick (Have to give this a good thinking before answering): “Umm… because I read. I like to read and learn things. So if you want to know things too, you have to learn to read.”
Luc: “Yeah! I want to learn to read.”
Sel: “And why some people don’t know?”
Nick: “Because they don’t read enough. If you don’t read and don’t learn, then you become real stupid.”
Sel: “Oh yeah. And do homework. You read, and you do homework, and then you know things, right?”
Nick: “Actually, no. Doing homework is useless. All you need is to know how to read, then, whenever you want to know something, you just write it out and search for it, and you read about it.”
Since Luc was as little as 1 year old, I had started the bed time story ritual. Every night, I would ask them to pick their book and I read them a story, usually, it takes 30 ~ 45 mins, sometimes over an hour(!) to finish reading. Whenever it’s late and mom tells them they have to go to sleep and no story, they get super upset. :D Still, Luc is 6 and 1/2 now and he can’t read yet. Can’t say I’m not worried but I’ve been testing him with reading games like Teach Your Monster to Read, and I can see he is starting to recognize some of the characters / words / sound, but still not quite there yet. It makes me wonder the kind of time and effort Hong Kong parents and kindergartens must’ve put in to teach all those kids to read at age 3! That’s unnatural (for most kids). Anyway, the important thing is that they’re inquisitive and ask questions. Eventually, they’ll be able to read and as long as they maintain their sense of wonder, then the sky is the limit.
Love you guys,
Daddy