“Do mice get Lyme Disease?”
Yes, it does takes me a really long time to get to some of these questions. Well over a year ago, Daddyo came home from work…
“What’s wrong with ketchup on hot dogs?”
While passing through Chicago O’Hare airport late last year, my daughter was deeply disturbed to learn that Chicagoans don’t put ketchup on their hot dogs. What’s wrong with putting ketchup on hot dogs? And what could you possibly use instead?
“What did people think caused earthquakes in the olden days?” Part Two
If you’re just joining us, on Monday The Five-Year-Old asked her Daddyo what people used to think caused earthquakes back in the olden days. “Like when you were born.” Turns out she meant the really olden days, when instead of seeking scientific explanations, people relied on storytelling to make sense of their world. And that’s a really fun question, because the ancient explanations are all over the map.
“What did people think earthquakes were in the olden days?”
As the oldest member of my particular household, I am always relieved when The Five-Year-Old’s my-agile-brain-cannot-comprehend-your-extreme-agedness comments are directed at Daddyo instead of me.
The Five-Year-Old, curiously: “Daddyo, what are earthquakes?”
“The shifting of the earth’s tectonic plates.” The Five-Year-Old, impatiently: “I know that, but what did people think they were in the olden days? Like when you were born.”
“I thought T. Rexes only had three toes. What’s that back thing for?”
Last year, The Five-Year-Old had a chance to cross a major item off her bucket list. She met Sue. For those of you who do not have your own in-house five-year-old dinosaur specialist, Sue is the largest, most complete, and best preserved T. Rex skeleton ever found. When she introduced Sue to Daddyo, he noticed something peculiar. “Hey, I thought T. Rexes only had three toes. What’s that back thing for?”
“How did the ancient Egyptians brush their teeth?”
Did the ancient Egyptians really brush their teeth with sticks?
“Why doesn’t Santa have heart disease?”
As you know, earlier this week after reading The Night Before Christmas, The Five-Year-Old and I had a conversation about the perils of smoking, and whether…
“Does Santa smoke?” Or how to use Santa to talk to your kids about smoking
The problem with old books is that they often have outdated ideas in them. But rather than skipping over the bits of books we don’t agree with or buying versions that have the tricky bits edited out, it’s better for parents to talk to our kids about those outdated ideas directly.
Semi-Classic Caterpickles: “How old is Santa?”
How old you think Santa is depends on who you think Santa is. Here we check the ages of the top six contenders: Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas, Santa Claus, Albert Einstein, the Norse god Odin, and Kris Kringle.
Backwards Letters: Normal development or early indicator of dyslexia?
When I asked my 5YO why she hated writing in lower case, she said she could never remember whether the b’s or the d’s faced forward. It turns out, this is a very common problem for kindergarteners, and not necessarily an early sign of dyslexia.
CATERPICKLES 