Did Curiosity Kill The Cat.....

...or did it just send her into hiding? .....and what part did the cat's mother play in it all?

I found out something exciting about Sissy today. Apparently, she has questions. There are things she wonders about. I know, it doesn't sound exciting in print but if you knew Sissy .....
let me just back up a bit.

From sometime around age five to six, Sissy was brimming over with curiosity about the world around her. It was really intoxicating to watch. The backyard, the bathtub, the kitchen sink .... they were all her classrooms. She learned so much by playing .... you could just see the wheels turning in her head. She was also constantly asking questions. It was like her mission in life was to gain as much information as possible about everything under the sun.

At some point though, she stopped asking questions. Or maybe she just slowed way down. At any rate, she stopped being the curious little girl full of wide-eyed wonder at the world.
What happened to that little girl?
Was she outgrowing a stage of development in which natural inquisitiveness is at its peak?
Was it -- oh Lord, no -- was it MY doing?
Shamefully, I remember begging her to hold off on the questions for awhile before Mommy's head exploded. I had given her the all too easy "I don't know" more times than I wanted to count.
Maybe in our homeschool, I had steered too traditional. In my heart of hearts, I was all for delight-directed learning, but I know myself and how distractible and airbrained I can be, and I had to have a routine.... had I become such a slave to it that I squashed Sissy's love of learning?

After today, I can thankfully say, "No!"

It began when I was looking at a Magic Schoolbus Question and Answer book with Sissy, and I said something benign and cheesy like -
"It's fun to learn new stuff, isn't it?"
She agreed it was.
Then, I said something that I would have thought my kids already knew..... in fact, I don't even know why I said it.... but I hugged her to me and said ...
"You know, if you ever have questions about anything, I mean ANYTHING, you know you can ask me. I may not know all the answers, but I'll try to help you find them."

She pulled away from me looking as though I had just given her a gift-wrapped box.
"Ohhh good!", she said. "Because I have a LOT of questions!"

"Really?... Oh... OK....umm, let's see.... ". There happened to be some paper and a pen lying nearby so I reached for it somewhat nervously (I hadn't expected her to start right NOW) and told her to shoot.

And in rapid-fire succession, as if they had waiting, crowded together behind an unopened door, the questions tumbled out into the open.

"How does a mood ring work?"
"How does medicine help you get better?"
"How does a music CD work?"
"How do they read the bar codes on foods and other things, and anyway what are the bar codes for?"
"How do we get water in our faucet?"
"How does electricity get through the wires?"

Here, she stopped to let my writing catch up.

"OK then, is that all?" I looked up.

"No, I've also been wondering .....
How does a thermometer work? How do you make trees into paper? How does heat get through the register into our rooms? I used to think the heat came from the air outside, but in wintertime it's cold outside, so I don't know .... also how does a spinning wheel make wool into yarn? How do shampoo and soap make you clean? How do you get the meat out of animals so you can eat it? How do computers, TV, and videocameras work? How does a piano work?
Also a violin. How does a violin work? I mean how can you just touch a string with something and get beautiful sound like that?"

Oh wow. My head was reeling. I had evidently opened up a floodgate and now, I was drowning in the rushing torrent. But I could have cried with excitement. She was still in there! My little sponge, my curious girl! I hugged her again and breathed in her smell.
"I've missed you so much", I whispered.

"What'd you say Mommy?"

Hmm? Oh, nothing. Hey if you've been wondering all these things, why didn't you ever ask me before?

She shrugged her shoulders and said breezily, "I just keep forgetting!"

I was really impressed at the list. They were good questions. In fact, with the exception of the mood ring mystery, they were all very practical, questions about things that surround her every day.... and hey, I've always wondered about mood rings myself.

She took the pen and paper and went off to add still more questions to the list. I think we're going to have to draw one question from a jar and answer it before we tackle any more.

On a whim, or maybe feeling like a glutton for punishment, I found Peanut.

"You know, I just found out that there are a lot of things your sister wants to know more about. What about you? Is there anything you've been wondering?"

"Well...." she thought a few seconds. "Well I HAVE been wondering if I'm going to get a Nintendo DS for my birthday."

I can always count on that kid for a punchline.