The cutest thing

All parents go through a phase with their kids where the questions do. not. end. The questions, MY GOD, the QUESTIONS.

We are well into our 3rd year of non-stop questions here with The Jillian. We have long since gotten past the Louis C.K. answer barrier of “because some things ARE and some things ARE NOT.” (it starts around the 3-minute mark)

Now that she can read, we are doing what my parents did to me. If I had a question, the answer was usually “look it up.” And that was back in the 80’s when we either had to go to the library or look up an answer in our near-antique encyclopedia that someone passed down to us at some point. We also had a huge dictionary with a 1910 copyright, so half the words we used hadn’t even been invented yet. Still, I looked things up and I learned stuff.

In 2012, we have The Google. And yes, we actually refer to it as “The” Google, because it’s totally a thing. Also, that sounds funny when I say it. However, we can’t be letting our six-year-old daughter on The Google because as everyone knows the internet is a weird and scary place and god knows she’ll click on something and the laptop will explode from some Nigerian prince viagra virus. Can’t be having that, so we do the Googling for her.

While I do spend a great deal of time in front of the computer, I’m not about to Google the answers to her questions every time she has one, so I have implemented The Question Book. I bought The Jillian a lovely pink notebook and handed her a pen. She is to write down her questions and then when we have a couple of minutes, we will look for the answers.

And it is THE CUTEST THING.

Sample questions:

How big is Jupiter?

How big is Mars?

What is the biggest number?

How is ink made?

How is sand made?

It’s so neat to see the things that she is thinking about. Right now she is big into outer space and planets, so lots of her questions deal with those things. And she went to the beach Saturday so I’m sure that’s where the sand question came from.

The Question Book is basically turning me into Supermom (moreso than normal) because it involves writing practice, reading practice, research skills, and fosters a questioning mind. I hope she fills this whole notebook with questions and answers so I can give it to her when she graduates from Harvard (Class of 2028).