My four-year-old son Nicolas was telling me about sharks the other day, and when I said something about sharks living in water, he said "No, sharks don't live in water, they live in the sea."
me: But the sea is made of water, right?
Nico: (after thinking about it a bit) Yes... There was a great big water bottle, and it spilled on the sand and made the sea!
So there you have it. And that's why the sea is made of water. ;^)
Okay, one more cute kid story:
My little Nico usually only speaks to me in English, but every now and then he'll learn something at school or from his French grandma and not know the corresponding words in English to talk about it. When that happens, and Nico wants to tell me about something he can only describe in French, he switches the language of the conversation as follows:
Nico: Maman ? (French for Mommy)
me: Yes?
Nico: Non, tu dis "Oui". [No, you say "Oui".]
me: Oui ?
Then he launches into his story in French.
(He's curious to know how to say the same thing in English, so I generally translate the things he tells me into English for him.)
Okay, one last one:
Recently Nico wanted a particular toy that was at a toystore on the other side of town. So we walked over there, and on the way back, when we were almost home, Nicolas started getting tired. He then made the following observation:
"If the store is far away from home, that means home is far away from the store."
The kid's a genius -- already formulating his own reciprocity theorems!! He's sure to be a great Mathematician one day!!! :D
The Adventures of a Friendly French-American ExMormon Atheist Mom Living in Switzerland!!!
12 comments:
SO cute! I love cute things kids say. My parents taught me that when a toddler keeps asking, "why?" and replies to the answer with, "why?" and on and on and on, one should say, "What do you think?" (a trick most parents know, so this is nothing new). I taught it to the mom I used to nanny for, and she's always amazed with the things her daughter comes up with. Only ONCE has this trick not worked for me. I used to sit for a 2.5 year old girl - sassy as they come (and I loved her for that, of course). When I'd say, "Well, what do you think?" She'd give me this haughty look and answer, with a sigh, "I don't know." WAY funny.
That has nothing to do with ANYTHING, but Nico's water story made me think of it. Sorry - I always tell random and irrelevant stories in your comments. But it's only because I love your entries so much!
Thanks Rebecca!!!
Actually it's quite relevant -- Nico is right in the middle of that "Why?" stage right now. Everything is "why? why? why?"
And the worst part is that Leo is in the "What is it?" stage, so the two of them practically have a little routine going.
Here's an example:
Leo: What is it?
me: She's a chicken.
Nico: Why is she a chicken?
me: Why are you a boy?
Nico: Because that's what I am!
me: Well, that's why she's a chicken -- because that's what she is.
Aww....!!!
It's SO cute to hear bilingual kids speak. Especially French! I'm gushing in the cuteness.
I'm glad you posted this. I enjoy the Porn: good or bad? debate but it was much too heavy for me. :)
You're great, have I mentioned that?
Thanks La!!!
It's the fun of blogging -- it's a blank canvas where we can post all different flavors!!! :D
That is great!
Alright, so we have the creation myth, the flood myth, the Babel myth, and theoretical mathematics all in one post and out of the mouth of a babe to boot. He's defintely an Enlightenment thinker. :)
Good stuff. Thanks, CL.
Thanks Freckle Face Girl, thanks Watt!!!
Kids, they come up with some great stuff! Great stories! We speak a combination of Spanglish at home & we're trying to get the kids to speak more Spanish only
The only thing now is that we can't speak only in Spanish when we don't want them to know about something anymore...darn kids!
Your kids sound so cute.
BTW, it's a small world. I was reading your bro's blog and came upon comments about his sister (you) and then I read down and saw a pic of them standing in front of the Blgs MT temple with Gma E... I think she's in my ward!!! M.E. too. It's a small world.
2:15 PM
Hey MikeP!!!
That's the trouble with helping them to learn more than one language, isn't it? ;-)
Thanks Sister Mary Lisa!!!
That's so funny!!! What a wild coincidence!!!
If you've been attending their ward for a while, there's a good chance you've met my mom too, since she visits them sometimes. Email me and we can chat: chanson dot exmormon at gmail dot com.
I loved his conclusion regarding distance between A and B. Imagine the clarity of the mind that creates that kind of sentence? Language, philosophy and math, all in the same conclusion. Precision!
So whenever children do their job in discovering reality and developing their minds, people are likely to go "oh, how clever, sounds like a scientist" when in fact it's the other way around. The true sign of a brilliant scientist - or a poet for that matter - is the ability to express theory with the bare minimum of words without loosing the exact definitions. Kid's style. It doesn't get any cleaner than that!
I think the worst "why?" discussion we had was when we stumbled across porn on the Internet, while browsing for dinosaurs. I just didn't know what to say, there's no logic to explain in porn!
Thanks Genilimaa!!!
We like to use the google image search to find pictures of things they're interested in (trains, dolphins, etc.). We haven't had any porn come up in any of these queries yet.
The closest was in one of their nature film DVDs. There's a scene of whales mating that leaves nothing to the imagination and which led to some interesting discussion.
Actually it was kind of funny, maybe I should write a post about that... ;^)
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