Car Conversations

On Wednesday, I always look forward to car conversations with the grandgirls. I usually pick up the two youngest children, ages almost five and seven.

Every conversation begins with asking if we are going to go to McDonalds. I always ask about their day and what they learned. This past Wednesday, the first grader asked me a question. "Grandma, how many planets were there when you were a little girl? You know, like me?" I told her nine but then asked why she wanted to know. She said her teacher told the class there used to be nine, but now there are eight. She wanted to know what that planet was called and said why it wasn't a planet anymore. I just told her that scientists discovered that Pluto was not made like a planet. I truly wasn't sure of the real reason. Then my granddaughter blew my mind and said that maybe Pluto was not a planet because it did not have an atmosphere to protect it! I told her maybe that was it! I asked her if she had learned this in science, and she said that it was in her reading lesson on the screen. What happened to Sally, Dick, and Jane? They just worried about Puff and Spot! Reading curriculum has really changed since the nineteen sixties!

The youngest then piped up and said that she had learned about leprechauns. She told me she had chocolate (coins) on the wall. I asked her if she played in the kitchen today, and she replied that she played pirates. In the kitchen? "The kitchen was our ship!" You have to love the preschooler's imagination!

Car conversations are just the best.

Later...