On an average day, my daughter’s question-to-declarative sentence ratio clocks in at a healthy 5:1. In this section of the blog, I explore what happens when instead of saying “I don’t know,” I say “Let’s find out!”
One evening, while learning the fine art of peanut shell cracking, The Five-Year-Old naturally wanted to know more about the substance she was working with. The Five-Year-Old: “Mommyo, are peanut shells made of wood?”
The Five-Year-Old: “Daddyo, this summer I want to catch a dragonfly, put him in a bottle, punch holes in the bottle and keep him as a…
If you’re just joining us, recently The Five-Year-Old asked me how Americans used to make ketchup in those bleak days before Henry Heinz brought his ketchup to market in 1876. Monday we found and translated an old-timey recipe. Yesterday we cooked it. And today we’re putting our old-timey ketchup to the test.
If you’re just joining us, recently The Five-Year-Old asked me how Americans used to make ketchup in those bleak days before Henry Heinz brought his ketchup to market in 1876. Yesterday we found and translated an old-timey recipe. Today we’re cooking it.
One of the reasons I love eating at local diners is that they tend to serve ketchup in glass bottles. The Five-Year-Old, though, was a bit surprised to learn that squeeze-and-squirt hasn’t always been fundamental to the ketchup experience. “Is this an old-timey bottle, Mommyo?” “Yep.” The Five-Year-Old, warily eying the red glob on her plate: “How do they make old-timey ketchup, Mommyo?” I didn’t know, but making old-timey ketchup sure sounded like a lot of fun.
Lately, The Five-Year-Old has been saving some of her best questions for the bedtime fending-off-sleep process. These questions nearly all have to do with the naming of things. “Why are monarchs called ‘monarchs’?” “Why are beetles called ‘beetles’?” And today’s question: “Why is it called ‘punctuation’?”
We spent Christmas in Florida last year. As we were driving to the airport for our flight home, we started talking about time. Specifically, time zones and how they would affect our travel plans. On hearing that when it’s 11:15 a.m. in Boston, it’s only 10:15 a.m. in Pensacola, Florida, The (then) Four-Year-Old asked: “Is Florida faster than Boston or slower?”
Last Christmas, when The (then) Four-Year-Old was surveying Panama City Beach for a likely spot to construct a landing pad for Santa and his reindeer, she came across a jellyfish. Naturally I panicked. “Don’t step in that! It might sting you!” The (then) Four-Year-Old, practically: “But it’s dead.” “Doesn’t matter, it can sting anyway.” The (then) Four-Year-Old, curiously, “How long can jellyfish sting after they are dead?”
Yesterday morning, as we were planning our itinerary for the summer, I asked The Five-Year-Old if she would like to go visit the Mayflower in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Naturally, she would. She was disappointed to hear that the ship we’d see was just a replica, Mayflower II. “What happened to MayFlower One, Mommyo?”
On an unexpected detour this weekend through South Natick, The Five-Year-Old noticed a sign for the Charles River. After establishing that it was in fact the same Charles River that flows by the Museum of Science, she naturally wanted to know: “Mommyo, how did the Charles River get its name?”
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