Tuesday, May 13, 2008

At a loss for knowledge


As I was telling a story at naptime to Isabelle and Olivia the other day I decided to have a teaching moment. What better time to impart knowledge? Both girls lying sweetly in their beds, ears open, ready to be edified. My story was about a girl named Sally who went to the moon. I thought maybe I could teach the girls a little about how big the moon is and what it's like up there. However, as I quickly dove into the recess of my intelligence bank I came up with less than I started with (I had really thought I had known something about astronomy!). What in the world- how long since I've had a science class? Very long...so here are some answers for your next story!

* how big is the moon in comparison to the earth? Um.... (I guess it's about a fourth the size of the earth)
* how far away is the moon- how long would it take to get there? (2 days in a spaceship; 250,000 miles away)
* how is the temperature up there? (-280 degrees-260 degrees F depending on whether the sun is shining on it or not. Also there is no water or atmosphere, so that means no weather!)

So anyway, like any good Mom would do I brushed over what I didn't know and quickly put little Sally back on solid ground.

I do try to watch "Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader" to freshen up my knowledge on simple facts that are embarrassing not to know. But about that, I really think those kids have a study guide to read before each show. There is no way they know all those answers. Anyway.....

Are there any subjects you'd really like to brush up on?

5 comments:

Megz said...

How come you thought you knew something about astronomy? Just thinkin' it don't make it so, honey.
Anything sciency would impress my kids. Like if I could tell them how old a certain rock was. Now that would be cool.

Diana said...

This happens to me all the time. I think I know something and start to tell Dallin about it, feeling like a great mom who is inspiring her child to be inquisitive---and then Dallin proves to be so inquisitive I have to say, "umm, maybe you should ask Dado." And the joy of the moment is gone. . .

LC said...

Brynn has hit me with some tough ones this week...How does owie medicine work? How old is Heavenly Father? When can we go to Disneyland? I DON"T KNOW!

Sherie Christensen said...

Dan thinks the moon is a ball and I'm sure he'll ask me one day how it stays up there. What subject couldn't I use a good brush up on? Der gets to help with most of the homework these days. I like the opinion questions -- like in church the other day Jake asked "How come they put that kind of light up there?" Hmm. They liked them? His next one was "How many are there?" at which time he proceeded to count really loudly.

TisforTonya said...

I have to brush up my math skills every year when my kids come asking... ugh, maybe I shouldn't have given in to the tempting language option quite so quickly? I think I would have to brush up on anything in order to sound remotely knowledgeable- even for a story, which is probably why most of our impromptu bedtime stories revolve around the many many many adventures of Goldilocks