Nice work, Boron

Much of what we teach our kids is prompted by their curiosity. So many of Henry's questions lately have led us to some of the basic building blocks of the universe -- natural questions about what things are made of, what those things are made of, and what those things are made of...

Last night.

Me: Henry -- what's K?

Henry: Potassium.

Me: What's Fe?

Henry: Iron.

Me: What's Pb?

Henry: Lead.

Me: What's Au?

Henry: Gold.

Me: What's Ag?

Henry: Silver.

Me: Hg?

Henry: Mercury.

Me: What's Na?

Henry: Um.... Uh....

Me: Give up?

Henry: Give me a hint.

Me: NaCl is salt.

Henry: Sodium!

Me: Right!

A long pause. He smiles.

Me: You're not a normal kid, you know that?

4 comments:

Craig Wesley said...

Agreed. Thankfully.

wordswords said...

For the record, Alice and Jane aren't normal either. Thankfully.

(and I almost deleted this post because it comes off like parent bragging. I should have just told the story of how he says goodnight to his periodic table poster, and gives it a kiss...)

Ruth Anne said...

doesn't everyone?....hmm, maybe not. It's good to start in small manageable bites, like the "universe", I always say. We'll all be proud to say we knew him When....Good luck keeping up with those kids!

Misty said...

I guess he's not. I should get to know him now, so when he's building ecosystems on Mars I can be great through association.