On being five

"I'm so glad I'm five years old. I have so many responsibilities!"

The nature of reality

"I wonder if this is really happening, or if I'm just having a very long dream."

-- S.C., 5 years old

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"Well, I know that Razheana* is not real, even though I have special feelings for her."

[* Yes, I've given pseudonyms even to S.C.'s imaginary friends. -- J.]

-- S.C., 5 years old

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"Children are still getting to know their parents. I'm only 5 years old, and so I'm still getting to know you and Daddy.

"I'd like to observe you more, so that I'll know if I can trust you with my babies someday."

-- S.C., 5 years old

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"It seems that all kinds of animals die off eventually -- and there was a time when there were no animals at all. I guess that means that people will all be extinct one day."

-- S.C., 5 years old

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Jazz, Wind, and Rain
A post-impressionist composition by S.C. - 5 years old

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Five-year-old S.C. decided she could not wait any longer for her homeschool teacher (her mom) to give her access to additional languages (besides English and French). So, S.C. looked up Greek script, memorized, and copied it - see image. She wants to learn Russian, too, and so she also copied the Cyrillic alphabet, above.

S.C. has been studying French in an immersion program, and is now studying other languages at home, using her new audio software and books.

-- S.C., 5 years old

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Our system of timekeeping is a little cumbersome, with all those 24s and 60s, and a.m. and p.m. o'clocks.

"Well, we could just make each hour longer, and have a 10-hour day."

-- S.C., 5 years old

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"Mommy, look. I noticed that if I put our new book [four thick pages, no binding] up to my mouth and talk through it, then I feel the vibration. And the highest [tone] is the lightest [vibration], too."

-- S.C., 5 years old
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"Mommy, for breakfast, please may I have chocolate-covered ants and cereal, but without the chocolate-covered ants?"

-- S.C., 5 years old

Biology

S.C. asked about a certain device which was located behind a restaurant. She knows that rodents, particularly the kind that live in cities, are a dangerous disease vector, spreading toxic pathogens to other animals and people....

"Why are they putting poison into the rats? It seems like they should be trying to take it out of the rats."

-- S.C., 4 years old

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"Why do monkeys need tails?"

-- S.C., 4 years old

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"Do all the animals in the world breathe? Do wolves breathe? Do cats and dogs and foxes breathe?"

-- S.C., 4 years old

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"Songbird"
S.C. - 4 years old

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"Does new skin push old skin just like adult teeth push baby teeth?"

-- S.C., 4 years old

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"I should leave the room. We should go outside to use that glue. I have to avoid chemical odors like that glue, because I need to protect my eggs."

-- S.C., 4 years old

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Spinning

"It's a good thing that we aren't able to feel how fast we're spinning around....

"Sometimes when I think about the planet spinning, and spinning around the sun, and the sun spinning around the galaxy -- then I feel a little nauseated."

-- S.C., 4 years old (Dec 2006)

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"If a comet crashed into the earth, would it wobble? Like this?" [Dramatically wobbling little dancing girl!]

-- S.C., 4 years old

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"Would a rocket poke a hole in the sky?"

-- S.C., 4 years old

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"Is there sun [sunlight] in Antarctica?"

-- S.C., 4 years old

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"Why is the sky blue?" [So, we discuss the properties of light.]

"-- Then why is it black at night?" [So, we discuss sensory organs; rods and cones.]

-- S.C., 4 years old

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"What color is camouflage?" [Confusedly, looking over color selection: camouflage -- clearly isn't just one color....]

-- S.C., 4 years old

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Here's 4-year-old S.C. -- in the blue jammies at top of page:

http://www.simmonskids.com/

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Matter and substance

Razheana [not her real name*] is S.C.'s imaginary friend. Weighing herself on the bathroom scale, S.C. comments,

"Razheana weighs zero pounds, because she is imaginary."

-- S.C., 3 years old (January 2006)


[* Is there something peculiar about giving a pseudonym to an imaginary friend...?]

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"Mommy's Hand and My Hand"
S.C. - 3 years old

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"Inside of me is just a skeleton, but on the outside, I'm a girl."


-- S.C., 3 years old
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"Caterpillar and Butterfly"
S.C. - 3 years old

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"I see a Sophia Claire in your eyes. Do you see a Mommy in mine?"

-- S.C., 3 years old

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"I'll be a mommy someday, and you'll still be my mommy, even when I'm a mommy. And I'll have children of my own.

"I wonder, who will they be?"

-- S.C., 3 years old

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Watching a fire engine pass by, sirens blaring, lights flashing:

"Can we pray, when the fire engine goes by? Does it help to pray?"

-- S.C., 3 years old

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Sadly, shaking head slowly and contemplatively:

"In a hundred years . . . in a hundred years . . . in a hundred years, . . . Mr. Rogers won't be here."

-- S.C., 3 years old

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Learning to see

Three-year-old S.C. came downstairs for breakfast, one early dawn. She asked, "Is the sun over the horizon?" Her mom reassured her that the light was peeking over, but that the sun's actual globe wasn't visible just yet. Dawn is S.C.'s favorite time of day, the time when she can most clearly see the movement of the planet and the effects of the sun's light, overpowering the light of all the other suns in our sky. Here is S.C.'s morning haiku, which she later illustrated and set to music.

Catch! the sparkles from
The stars and the moon before
They all go away


-- S.C., 3 years old (Feb. 2006)
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Playing with her toy globe. Contemplating thoughtfully.

"Mommy, how many trips have you made around the sun? I've made three trips around the sun. We say that I'm three years old, but this is my fourth trip. When I've finished this trip, we'll say that I'm four years old."

-- S.C., 3 years old

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S.C. was watching the teakettle on the stove.

"Steam rises up. It doesn't rise down."

-- S.C., 3 years old (Oct. 2005)

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S.C. was pushing a heavy cart at our local Big Box Large-Volume Discount Store. (Ah, inertia!)

"Look, Mommy! These heavy carts push themselves, see? Once you get them going, then they push themselves. ...But then they're really hard to stop."

-- S.C., 3 years old

Love is at work

"Mommy, we're the ocean hugging the shore. You're big, like the ocean, and I'm small, like the shore."

-- S.C., 3 years old

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"Verbs are doing words. . . . 'Love' is a verb."

-- S.C., 3 years old

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"Daddy, you are a tangerine of love! You are a candy cane of love! You are so sweet."

-- S.C., 3 years old

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S.C. asks about Daddy's work, and why he has to leave for work every day. She would like so very much for him to stay home, too. She asks why we need the income he generates, and she listens intently to the explanation: this income pays for books and learning toys, and -- S.C. interrupts, plaintively, anguished --

"Then I'll give it all back!"

-- S.C., 3 years old

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