Four year olds are exhausting. They are little wound up packages of infinite energy, unpredictable emotions, and growing appetites. They also blither incessantly. Their curiosity is an inextinguishable flame that seems to only be fueled with more information. My son will inundate me with questions; strange and random questions, unanswerable questions, and questions with answers that will only trigger more questions. Ah! His endless interrogations about life boggle my mind!
Because some of his questions are so out there and seemed to be prompted by nothing at all, not to mention their frequency, I tried to keep a list of them all. I wasn’t able to keep up with him but here is what I was able to jot down through out our snow day today:
How does the Geo get better gas than the truck?
Why can I hear the car when I’m inside?
What does that word say….”fun”?
Mommy, what’s your favorite colour?
Why is that river brown?
How will they clean the river?
Why is a moth not a butterfly?
Is this frog poisonous?
What kind of snake is this?
Why do toucans have big beaks?
Why are they killing the rainforest?
When will it be Spring?
Does know and show rhyme?
What does C-R-O-F-T-O-N spell?
Who’s going to have that baby?
Why do some people have to fly in airplanes overnight?
Why are there 3 fours in 4:44?
Why are some octopuses small?
If you wait a really, really long time to grow a bean will it grow into a beanstalk?
Are there beanstalks in real life?
Why is some people’s skin lighter and some people’s skin darker?
Why do Vikings have horns on their hats?
What’s an enemy?
What does “in distress” mean?
What do Leprechauns do?
Why is blue just blue, not made with other colors?
There were others too. Lots of questions about how to spell things, pronounce/read things, whether or not two words rhymed, if a word was indeed a real word, and many many random animal fact questions.
However tiring the question game may be, I know it’s really good for him. It shows that he’s a clever boy and that he’s paying attention to details. No matter how trivial an inquiry may seem, I try to give him an honest answer, and I really do try to find the answers if I don’t know off hand. This is proof that is brain is growing and needs to be fed. Besides simply supplying him with information, I know these exchanges help him in other ways too. He’s learning to seek out information and that it’s ok to come to Mommy and Daddy with questions. He’s learning how to have conversations with regular back and forth; how to interject his own thoughts, emotions, and previous knowledge; how to build on what he knows, discover his interests, and find new intrigues.
So, ask away little man! Mommy’s poured herself a cup of coffee, fired up Google, and is ready for what ever oddity passes through your sweet mind!
Reasoning with the Monsters Under the Bed 