Today's questions

Things Anya asked me today:

• How do magicians do the rabbit-out-of-the-hat trick?
• How many moons does Venus have?
• How come Mercury and Venus don't have any moons?
• Is our planet ever going to get sucked into the sun?
• How big is our moon? (She guessed "Bigger than our house.")
• What are asteroids?
• What's a growth spurt?
• Where do the blue ladybugs live?
• How far is it to Hawaii?
• How do you tell male ladybugs from female ladybugs?
• Where can we find aphids?
• Would our ladybugs (current count: 21, living in a pickle jar) mate if we gave them aphids?
  
• Does "ladybug" have a silent 'e' in it? (the 'a' says its name, after all...)
• Why are ladybugs diurnal?
• What do Daddy Long-Legs eat?
• What do pillbugs (roly-polys) eat?
• What happens to a roly-poly if it dries out?
• What's the recipe for Play-Doh?
• How come some grass grows taller than other grass?
• How tall does the tallest grass grow?
• Do prairie dogs live on the prairie?
• How come one of our guitars is louder than the other guitar?
• How do you play a C note on the guitar?
• How do you play Old McDonald on the guitar?
• How does the thermostat work?
• If light is the fastest thing ever than how come it takes a second for the kitchen light to turn on? (It's fluorescent....)
  
• Are fairies real?
• How many seconds is two minutes?
• How many seconds is three minutes?
• How slow does a turtle move?
• How slow does a tree sloth move?
• What's the fastest animal?
• Can I (Anya) run faster than a chipmunk?
• What does this sound mean (a telephone busy signal)?
• How come some cheese is stinkier than other cheese?
• How does popcorn pop?
• How many people live on the whole Earth?
• Why don't any people live at the South Pole?
• How come my (electronic, LeapFrog) globe doesn't say "population 1" at the North Pole?

Mind you, this is just what I can remember, sitting here and trying to recall as of 4pm. There are also many observations that she wants me to reaffirm, as in: "That red spot on Jupiter is a storm bigger than our whole PLANET, right Mom?" I didn't count those, and there are just as many of those as actual questions. Nor did I count lengthy discussions such as how orbiting works, the phases of the moon, or the seasons. Nor the time spent finding ladybug images on Google. Nor the time spent practicing little song bits on her guitar. Nor did I count the things I volunteered, like that groups of insects have different names, like coleoptera are beetles, lepidoptera are moths and butterflies, and hymenoptera are social insects like bees, wasps, and ants. The Latin names are boring, but we were looking through a long index of bug pics listed by Latin names, and it was actually useful in that context.

And then there was Tristan: colors, shapes, vehicles, parts of the face, practicing going down the stairs, books, puzzles, dancing, crayon drawing, Baby Einstein videos, and the endless requests for snacks. He was eating grapes today while Anya had the lid off the ladybug jar, and he held up a grape and said "bug." I was pretty thrilled with that, and of course cut the grape in half and stuck it in there, then helped him see that the bugs were indeed eating it within minutes.

I just don't think we have time for a curriculum-- I'm too busy helping my kids learn stuff as it is.

And this was a day I supposedly devoted to housework! Criminy, no wonder I'm so often exhausted....