Conversations With An Almost-Past-4-Year -Old

If you are reading this on Monday, not Sunday, Almost-Past-4 is 5 years old. But until she is officially five, she told me rather emphatically, I cannot call her 5, almost-5 or just-about-5. Nope. That would be wrong. But I did have quite a conversation with her last night, Saturday, while Junior Son and Mrs. Junior Son went out to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary. 

After Young Sir went to sleep, we watched a couple of pre-selected videos. No Cinderella or Disney Princess for my granddaughter! First up was The Thunderbirds. Not the cartoon, but a cockpit view of the U.S. Air Force squadron flying in formation. She loves when the fighter goes upside-down. We talked about whether or not passenger planes could to that, too, and what might happen to the passengers.  We talked about the face mask and why pilots had to have oxygen while flying those F-16s. Now, you might think I don't know squat about those birds, but not quite so. You see, I had a son that was an F-16 junkie. His idea of a bedtime story had to do with payloads and cargo capacity. We had a video drawer full of Wings Over America, Wings Over Europe, Wings Over Wings, Wings over Those Wings. We once pulled off the road in Pennsylvania because he spotted F-type planes on a tarmac. Like father......

The Thunderbirds video was followed a series of clips of soft landings made by Space-X, including one that fell over. That was exciting. We talked about how the feet of the rocket splay out right before it lands, and how hard it is to get it precisely in the center of the landing pad. We talked about the difference between being a pilot and an astronaut. It was a fascinating conversation, that eventually turned to gliding. 

This was a new concept, so we found a video of a guy with a glider and we watched with great interest as he was towed into the air and then the tow was released. I had been gliding, so I told her about how silent it was if compared to being in a plane. We talked about updrafts and downdrafts. At the end of the video, the guy said, "And this is my new instrument panel. Let me take you through it." Little Miss was totally hooked into his talk...until he kept saying instrument. She had me stop tape. "Savta, why does he call that an instrument when you can't play it?"

Try explaining homonyms to a Not-Quite-5-Year-Old. Not as simple as you may think. She told me words cannot possibly sound the same and mean totally different things. I worked on that for a bit, but she was yawning, and it was time to change into Arts Savta!

We turned our attention to tap dancing. Two UPTOWN FUNK mash-ups, one classic that included Shirley Temple (Little Miss could  not believe that Shirley Temple was not much older than she is right now when she made THE LITTLE COLONEL, dancing up the stairs with Bill Robinson) and the modern version. And the last video before sleeping is her standard request when she is with me, the one where the girl goes off the stage to dance. 

Jessica Meir and Kristina Koch

When I am with Little Miss, I try to feed the science and math kid I see growing stronger and more curious with each passing day. I want her to be comfortable in her very mathematical skin, tackling numbers with relish and passion. I want to see her soft landing, flying upside down, and looking at a picture of the two women astronauts, one of whom is Jewish, and think I can do that!

At the same time, I want her to know how to point her toes, execute a proper pas de bourrée, and know how to do a jazz square with jazz hands. I want her to see a Degas and instantly recognize the difference between that and a Monet. My dream for my granddaughter is to have access to all those spheres of knowledge and to have a thoroughly working familiarity with all of them. 

But that's only part of the dream. When she talks to me about what's still in the garden and how it's time to get ready for winter, I kvell. When she asks if the-tomato-that refuses-to-die will give us a tomato in February again this year, I tell her all we can do it water it and hope. There are no guarantees, yet I want to guarantee that there will be a planet to have a garden on! 

The leaves are especially brilliant this year, but I also know that's not necessarily a good thing. The weather was uncommonly wet with sporadic hot and cold patches. I watch maps of the jet stream and even though I know our ability to track it is a relatively new skill, I also know the Arctic and Antarctic core samples don't show a history that matches our current meteorological model. Ice caps are melting and sea level is rising. And the US officially has pulled out of climatology science. This is not a good thing. 

I want all good things for my grandkids. I want them to be happy and healthy, well-balanced and still be able to reach for the stars. 

Most of all, I want to keep having conversations about sciences and arts with my Not-Quite-5-Year-Old granddaughter who, right now, has the world at her fingertips. After all, she gave me really good pointers about my new iPad in between videos.

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Let kids ask questions.

Answer the questions if you can, and if you can't, you get to say,

"Let's go find out."

Nuthin' wrong with that.