Max and I have been enjoying spending time together studying different science topics. Right now we are reading about space at Max's request, and we have been talking about the different planets. We started reading about Jupiter and learned that it was the biggest planet and composed entirely of gas. Max listened patiently as he always does when I read to him, but I thought there was no way that this gas thing made any sense to him.
Greta: Max, do you know what gas is?
Max: Yup. It comes out of daddy's bum.
I found this quite amusing, mostly because I wondered what he must think of Jupiter with this definition of gas in mind....
Greta: Well...yes, that is gas...one type of gas, but there are many types of gasses. Do you want to do an experiment?
Max enthusiastically agreed to this because he loves doing experiments. We went to the kitchen and measured a small amount of water into a measuring cup. We took careful note of how much water we had and then we poured it into a pan and started heating it. Soon it started to boil. I asked Max what he thought the bubbles were, we felt the steam and noticed how we could put our hand through it and also things that were liquid, but we couldn't put our hand through solid things. After we had boiled the water for awhile we put it back into the measuring cup and noticed that we had less water than before.
Greta: Max, where did our water go?
Max: (to my great surprise) It turned into steam.
I was thrilled with his comprehension and started giving myself a nice pat on the back for being such a fabulous science teacher. Then Max got a look of sheer delight as though all these ideas were finally falling in to place.
Max: And our tummy is boiling too!
Greta: (confused) what?
Max: We drink water and it goes into our tummy where it boils and makes gas. Then the gas comes out our bum!
Hmmm...not quite. But it was a fine piece of thinking and I didn't have the heart to shoot it down...so I just told Max what a smart idea that was and maybe we can think about it more when we start talking about how our bodies work. So now my kid thinks our stomachs boil...so much for being a good science teacher.
I don't know... I think your stomach boiling is a really interesting analogy to what really happens. The source of ignition and complexity of the chemical reactions is quite different, but his thinking is very clever.
ReplyDeleteSomehow I think he wasn't thinking on the chemical level...but at least that makes me feel better about not correcting him :)
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