The Universe

Tonight on the drive home Roland asked me, "how did there get to be people on earth?" (Raise eyebrows, check review-mirror, turn down raido...) "What?" Which launched us into a huge discussion about the solar system, dinosaurs, different theories of beliefs about creation, the moon, and more. Lots more. Meanwhile Aria was licking the last of her yogurt off the top of her lid.

There was a long exchange about dinosaurs and how man discovered them, what happened to them, the ice age, etc. I even threw out that some people believe we evolved from apes to which I got, "Mom, I'm pretty sure no kid is going to believe that." From his perspective I understand.

I tried my best to take mental notes of his questions - which there were four of for every one exploratory answer I attempted to give. Somewhere around mile marker 210 I started to wish I had an iPhone just to summon Siri for some backup.

It's more interesting for me to know what he thinks, rather than explain what I know. Because, when I gathered up all his questions and considered, I don't know very much. I positively confirmed that we see a crescent moon because the Earth's shadow covers a portion of the moon, and that the moon is smaller than the earth. But I didn't know how much smaller, like Texas or Australia? I don't know precisely why the dinosaurs all died, why man wasn't around to see them, how man came to be on this planet or why we haven't found life on other planets. I explained these were wonderful questions humans have been trying to figure out for thousands of years. And keep asking them! Just a healthy, humbling does of you-don't-know-squat from your average 5-year-old. Yay parenting!

Roland said he would like to be a palaeontologist or teacher who talks to kids about the earth and dinosaurs. Later after dinner Brian mentioned he and Roland read a Time magazine article over breakfast today about meteors from other planets transporting different micro-organisms from space through our atmosphere and into the ocean, mountains, what-have-you. Ah-ha! So that's where a portion of his questions stemmed from...

So tonight for help I download NASA and Kids Britannica apps on the iPad (thanks Nana) about the solar system and Earth. Will be educational for all I am sure.

What makes me smile is that somewhere in the conversation between the ice age and dinosaurs becoming extinct, the necessary regions of warmth on the earth for survival Roland reminded me that there had to be a South Pole, for Santa.