My Little Reporters

Driving home with my little heroes at 5.30pm every evening is always filled with endless streams of interesting news and happenings. My two little heroes-cum-reporters have tonnes of stories to share with me especially about who-did-what and why-that-happened: Mummy, mummy...XYZ cried in school today. Mummy, mummy...XYZ pushed DEF while playing just now. Mummy, mummy...we saw a flying ant (???) in the garden...yaddah, yaddah, yaddah...

Sometimes, these conversations with them can sometimes feel like mini interrogations. Apparently, their favourite is the "wh" words: Where are we going, Mommy? When will we get there? Who are we going to see? What time will Daddy come home today? Why are the clouds white?

It can be indeed a challenging task especially when you feel dead exhausted after work. I used to wonder why kids of that age group chat endlessly. Then later I realised the reasons behind this so-called "mystery":

i) As part of their new mental abilities, the kids are getting all the connections put together. They want to see the order of things.

ii) Another reason for the nonstop questions is that their vocabulary is exploding, and they want to practise using words to probe the world around them.

iii) Intellectually, they are beginning to understand that there are reasons for things — and they want to know what they are.

I learnt to try not to brush off questions, relentless though they may be. Keep the answers short and sweet. They don't really want a long-winded scientific explanation of why the sky is blue. Oh, by the way...have loads of patience because sometimes the same question may crop up several times:D

One little tip, when you get tired of answering, ask questions back instead: "What do you think?" If you notice a persistent theme to questions that show your child is really curious about something — say, clouds — check out books that fuel the interest. Who knows where those questions may take you? At the very least, you'll learn how to tell a cirrus from a cumulus;)

p/s: This blog was left idle for about two weeks due to exam fever :(