One of the things that intrigue me about motherhood is the curiosity of kids. As a mom, I daily encounter my little ones asking questions that are sometimes hard , sometimes funny and sometimes just totally weird. I cannot help but wonder in amazement where these questions are coming from. I am not even talking about the “why” questions that kids often ask. Those are easy. I am talking about questions that will almost embarrass you because you are not 100 percent sure of the answer. Typically moms tend to know most of the answers except instances whereby mommy has to do a Google search to find the correct answer. My utmost respect and heart-felt gratitude goes to Larry Page and Sergey Brin for creating Google.
Truth be told that children are trying to piece together information in order to further their knowledge and make sense of the world. Their innate curiosity plays a big part in stirring up their inner geniuses which helps to build concepts, skills, vocabulary, and understanding of this amazing world. I know that kids don’t deliberately ask these questions to annoy or “disgrace” their parents, but because they really want an explanation. Therefore, for you to give a logical explanation, you need to seek knowledge and equip yourself with correct information. This is because if you give that child a wrong answers, he or she believes you and will go to school and share that piece of information with anyone who cares to listen including their unsuspecting classmates.
What I am really driving at is that you have to brace yourself up for these questions because whether you like it or not, they will come. So it is better you stay prepared. Study, seek knowledge; read about science, arts, animals, the black hole, hurricanes, stars, etc.
Let me help you put this in a better perspective by giving you examples of real life questions I have had to answer by a five year old boy.
1)Which one is your favorite dwarf planet ? This child is fascinated by space. He knows the names of all the eight planets and loves them, knows the number of moons they have. He also knows all the dwarf planets. To be honest, prior to this child asking me this question, I had no idea what the dwarf planets were. Now I know that there are five of them including Makemake, Ceres, Eris, Haumea and Pluto. I had to read! You cannot imagine the number of explanations I had to do that pluto is also one of the dwarf planets
2) What is the difference between hurricane and tornado?
3) Where does the sun rise and where does it set?
4) What does snow tiger look like?
5) Mommy, do you know what a roadrunner is?
5) Mommy, do you know a peanut-head bug?
6) Mommy what does a blue marlin look like? Actually, I heard about this fish (yes, it is a fish) for the first time from my five-year son. Covering eyes! Anyways, we googled it and now we both know what it looks like.
7) Do ducks have teeth? Actually, I outright found this particular question very embarrassing. I had no idea! “I would assume they do baby,” I said to him. I found out (again thanks to google) that ducks do not have teeth but their mouth contains both an upper and lower jaw. Using their long beak and jaw, they catch their food and swallow it whole.
8) Mommy, do you know that spiders have eight eyes? I quickly checked and found out that it was true. So I told him, “of course, spiders have eight eyes”.
9) Can the black hole suck up the whole galaxy? For Christ’s sake, where is this coming from? To be honest, this boy got fascinated by the black hole after watching a YouTube video once. Till today, I have no idea how he got to know.
10) Mommy, what is the name of that star? To be honest, this one got me almost exasperated.
Children have very curious minds and are on a journey of discovery trying to make sense of the whole universe at large and we have to help and support them on that journey. It will cost you time as a parent. You will expend energy. You will have to research things that will puzzle you. Your patience would be tried especially when you have to answer the same question over and over again in differing variations. However, it is an investment in the life of your wards.
Help these precious ones awaken their inner genius. Curiosity, as we know is the engine of achievement.
“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”
– Albert Einstein