Setting: The couch. We are all gathered there reading from "Hero Tales". The question, and the lesson was about Truthfulness. I had posed the second question after our reading, and this is how it went from there.
Toa of Boy: "I don't know. Can you just tell me, Mommy?"
Mommy: "What about you Sweetling, what do you think?"
Sweetling: *shrug*
Mommy rephrases the question.
Toa of Boy: "Just tell me, Mommy."
Sweetling: *shrug*
Mommy: "Well I think Toa of Boy should try to eat his own toes."
Toa: "aaaarrrggggghhhh" (as he puts the big toe of his left foot into his mouth)
Sweetling: "No, no, no, no, NO!!!!"
Setting: The kitchen. Toa of Boy and I were working on a math lesson measuring capacity and volume.
The result of our efforts: Little wet footprints made by little wet feet all along the kitchen floor and one empty milk jug with permanent marker lines drawn around it to denote a 1 liter fill line and a half liter fill line.
Setting: The kitchen again. Sweetling had just emerged from her room for snack.
Mommy: "Hey Sweetling, what does 'ubiquitous' mean?"
Sweetling: ???
Mommy: "I've had that word stuck in my head for two days and I'm really not sure what it means."
Sweetling rushes out of the room and comes back just a few moments later.
Sweetling: It means 'being present everywhere'.
Mommy: Really??? Did your vocabulary book have a sample sentence?
Sweetling: yes.
Mommy: Did you read it? Do you know what it is? Can you tell me?
Sweetling; I think it was something about God being ubiquitous.
Mommy. Huh.
A few minutes pass while Mommy does food prep.
Mommy: So, 'a ubiquitous response' or 'a ubiquitous reply' doesn't really work.
Sweetling; What??? Where did you get that??
Mommy: I don't know. That's what's been stuck in my head. What word do I need there?
Sweetling: I have no idea. What are you trying to say?
Mommy: Like an answer that is difficult to really pin down, one that can mean more than one thing.
Sweetling: Ambiguous.
Mommy: Oh yeah....
Setting: The kitchen. I am preparing dinner. The Jedi has just arrived home from work and has come into the room to put away his lunch box and sort the mail.
The Jedi: So, whose Mobius strip is that on the table?
Setting: The van. We are on our way to church for Awana and The Brink. Toa of Boy is talking to Sweetling about a wide range of topics.
Sweetling: Wait, he's bald and he eats hair?
Toa: Yes! He eats hair and he's bald but if he eats the hair maybe it comes out on his head!!!!!
1 comment:
"Mommy: So, 'a ubiquitous response' or 'a ubiquitous reply' doesn't really work."
Psssh...don't be so eager to limit language! Ubiquitous responses are entirely common. Watch this:
"Xuan, you need to run laundry today." What sound did you just make? Was it a slight groan and resigned sigh? Yes. Yes, it was. I'm not psychic, but thats the response -everybody- has to laundry at any and every given moment. See? Ubiquity. ;)
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