Crying Wolf

Kids are so literal.

I was thinking back today to when Josh was little. It seems like just yesterday. I remember one particular day, 10 years ago, when four-year-old Joshua thought it would be funny to frantically call me from the other room. Heart pounding, I rushed to his rescue only to hear him giggle hysterically once I got there. “Hi, Mommy,” he laughed innocently.

After one more panic-inducing episode, I decided to turn this into a teaching moment.

“Have you ever heard of the boy who cried wolf?” I asked. No, he had not.

I launched into Aesop’s Fable. “There was once this little boy who was a shepherd. He took care of sheep. He thought it would be funny to trick the people in his town into thinking that a wolf was about to kill his sheep. The townspeople would run to help the boy, only to find the little shepherd boy laughing because there was no wolf. He did this many times. The people came each time, but there was never a wolf threatening his flock. One day, though, a wolf actually did come to attack his sheep. The little boy cried desperately for help, but no one came because they thought they were being tricked again. So, the wolf killed the sheep.”

I paused, waiting for the little light bulb to go on in his head.

But instead of sorrow and shame, his big brown eyes grew even wider as he asked, “Mommy! How big was the wolf? What color was he? Were his teeth pointy?”

The moral went right over his head. But he sure enjoyed an entertaining story.

Sighing in defeat, I answered, “Big, brown, and very pointy.”

Kids are so literal.

Finding Answers

Anna and Google are tight. Any question she has, Google has the answer. And, in our world, Google is not just a noun, but also a verb.

We were baking this morning. Well, not exactly baking. It was a chocolate cream pie that required no baking. Anyway, one of the ingredients was evaporated milk. That got her to thinking.

“Why is this called ‘evaporated’ milk?” she asked as she poured out a liquid that was obviously not evaporated. You got me. “Google it,” I suggested.

Later, after the pie was chilling in the refrigerator, we shared a couple of oranges. She’s a healthy eater. I could take lessons. Anyway, she started talking about vitamin C. She asked why it was so important. “Scurvy!” I said confidently. “So you won’t get scurvy!” Anna started singing a snappy little tune about scurvy. “Sponge Bob?” I asked. She grinned. Her knowledge of scurvy begins and ends with Sponge Bob.

But really, what’s scurvy? “Sailors used to get it a lot,” I said. But honestly, what do I know about the link between scurvy and vitamin C? Not much. However, I, too, know where to find the answer.  I found a very informative piece on Wikipedia giving me more detail than I really needed to know, including a picture. I think I’m going to up my intake of vitamin C. Anna isn’t satisfied, though. She is now planning to research all the vitamins through “E.” She’ll get to the others later.

I had also recommended online research to her yesterday as we were watching The Twilight Zone marathon on the Syfy channel. There was an episode in which the children were playing Kick the Can. “So, what exactly is Kick the Can?” she asked me. “It doesn’t even sound fun.”

I’ve never played that game, so I directed her to the internet. I hope she tells me how to play because I’m a little curious, too.

Before we folded and got her a dog, she did her online research. She determined the breed she wanted, how to care for said breed, and the benefits of having a dog. She did a research paper in fourth grade that doubled as a plea to us. It worked. Her research and brilliant writing dazzled us, and before we knew what had happened, I was getting up twice a night to take a puppy out to pee.

She’s such a curious kid, and I hope she always has questions. And I also really hope that she is diligent enough to seek the answers. Sometimes those answers will come from Mark and me, or from her teachers, or from books. But when we fail, there is always the internet. Not always fail-safe, and not always correct, but she knows how to find the legitimate sites. She’s a savvy girl.