I want to be a teacher and scientist
So, Emma now says she wants to be a scientist and at teacher who teaches science. Just like her Papa 
. Her Daddy is a teacher of English, so she’ll be following the family tradition 
. We’ll see how long that lasts!
Which reminds me, about 6 weeks ago Emma wanted to know how “people got on the continents.” Commenter Yolanda suggested a book, Tree of Life: Wonders of Evolution. So we ordered it. The day it came Emma insisted I read it to her. Three times. I liked the book, it explains natural selection and evolution in a way a 5 year old can understand (see below). It does get a bit ‘mystical’ for my tastes at times, but it’s for a five year old . So, I thought Emma got it, I was sure of that the next week.
I was walking Emma and her classmates up the street from school to their soccer practice. We were playing a silly game of “what is real?” I’d say “aren’t dragons real?” and they’d say “nooooooooooo silly, they are make-believe.” “aren’t witches real?”… etc. (funny side note, I said “aren’t fairies real?” and one of Emma’s friend chimed in “Of course, but you can’t see them unless you believe in them!” LOL, I didn’t disabuse her of that notion).
Of course I stayed away from Santa, the Easter Bunny and tooth fairies. These are controversial subjects in the 5-year-old world and I didn’t want to broach THAT discussion!
THen I said “Arent’ dinosaurs real?” and the kids answered ”Of course they are.. but they are extinct, the don’t live any more.”
It’s here that Emma chimed in and said “Guess what? I know how people got on the continents! I know how life got here. Want to know?”
Even though none of the kids seemed that interested in the answer, Emma went on to give an _excellent_ explanation of the origins of life, natural selection and evolution for the next few minutes.
I was quite impressed. Not only did she get it from reading the book, she remembered it and was able to explain it a week later.
Perhaps she will become a science teacher .
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I’m very very curious, what IS the explanation that Emma gav (or at least the outline of it)? I myself can’t even explain natural selection etc even if I tried!
Reply to SilphHi Silph, long time no see!
Her explanation paraphrased:
First there wasn’t anything alive.
Then lightning, water, minerals and stuff were mixed. A tiny life came.
It made copies of itself. Most were exactly the same as the first.
Some had changes. Some changes helped the copy live better and make more copies, some changes hurt and those copies died.
The changed copies made more changed copies.
Then there were big life.
Then some changed copies had legs and could go on land
And some flew and some became apes.
And some changed ape copies could walk and became humans.
I’d say that’s pretty good for a 5 year old.
Reply to TreyNot bad, that actually /is/ a pretty elegant explanation.
Oh, btw, good to see you blogging a bit more regularly again! (no pressure to continue frequent blogging, of course, but it’s nice whenever you do).
Reply to Silph