Tuesday, May 20, 2008

3 year old existentialism

Wesley is very much in the "why" phase right now. I like it. Here are some of the highlights:

Wes: Why does the sun go down?
Me: (thinking, hmmm, do I give him the scientific answer, or should the earth just be flat right now--I opt for the real reason and use my fist to be the earth and the sun to be a basketball.) Well, we are on the earth, and the earth spins like this (twist my fist around) and we're on the surface of the earth (I point to my knuckle with the other hand--so, I'm tangling up my hands and trying to keep the sun in place while I use the finger to show that we're on earth and when the earth spins it just looks like the sun goes down. I think my teaching job is a miserable failure, but notice Wesley explaining to his mom the next day and spinning his fist around too. :)
By the way, Wesley seems extremely interested in astronomy. One time he asked Lara what an "orbit" was (he was looking at one of his magic school bus books) and Lara explained that we were on the earth and were flying through space around the sun in a big circle. She said, "but we don't really feel like we're flying, do we." Wesley responded--"I can! Weeeee!"

Wesley: "Where are my feelings?"
Lara: (Baffled) "Well, sometimes they're inside our heart, and sometimes they're inside our heads."
Wes: "What's inside my head?"

Wesley, pointing to a man at McDonalds: "What's his name?"
Me: "I don't know."
Wesley: "Don't say, 'I don't know.'" (He's been saying that a lot lately. He is clearly perturbed when I don't know something.)
Me: (Debating whether I should let Wesley go over and ask the man his name.) "Son, we don't have to know everyone's name."

Wesley, pointing to a picture of Jesus feeding the 5000, "That's Jesus. I like Jesus. Why'd they nail him up on that cross?"
Me: "They did, didn't they. Why do you think they did?"
Wesley: "They nailed him on that cross like this, bam bam bam bam bam, and it hurt him."
Me: "That's right. But Jesus wanted us to know how much God loves us, so he went through the hurt because he knew it would show what God would do for us."
Wes: Oh, God loves us?
Me: Yes. God made you, and He loves you.
Wes: Jesus loves us?
me: Yes, very much.
Wes: Oh.

1 comment:

  1. wow. such wonderful questions! i love it.

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