Today when I got home he asked me about his "ska." "Scar," I thought, fearfully. So I asked him to spell it. "S ... K..," plus he was pointing to his head, so eventually I figured out he meant "skull." Apparently today they were doing the basic anatomy part of the curriculum, and were talking about the brain, which is inside the skull, which is part of the nervous system.
I don't recall running into these terms until I was in grade school, so obviously what's considered basic learning has advanced quite a ways. Baz asked me what the color of the brain was (gray), what would happen if I didn't have a brain (you would just lie on the floor, was the answer he provided), where the nervous system was ("All over your body, Baz, from your brain all the way down to your toes"), what color the nervous system was (which stumped me, actually, although I said, "maybe it's blue"), and finally - a little off topic but an interesting question nonetheless - what would happen if I wasn't wearing an astronaut suit on the moon. To the last I answered, "You wouldn't be able to breathe." Baz agreed, but did one better: "Your body would fweeze." Who knew a four year old understood the deep vacuum of outer space? That's my boy!
Once again I am humbled and gratified by Baz's curiosity and interest in the way things work, in cause and effect, and in facts. I hope he will never lose this childlike wonder, and at the same time, that in talking to him and learning from him, I will regain mine.
(Picture courtesy NASA)
5 comments:
Baz once told Na-a he was in a rocket ship flying to the moon...but he assured Na-a he was only pretending ("I'm just pwetending.")
the brain is mostly white and pink. i should know, i've dissected one.
maybe baz would enjoy the "if i only had a brain" segment from the wizard of oz
Bazzii learned about space and the planets in his Las Pinas school.
Yeah, Gramps taught Baz about outer space.
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