Google

Mom, do you know why medieval architecture favours the spiral staircase?

These and other equally intriguing questions have been coming my way since our 8 year old's interests have waned from all things marine toward a variety of more mature pursuits including medieval history, Greek mythology, chemistry and geology.  He calls them bigger kid interests - it seems he relegates his marine biology days to the realm of the juvenile...?

Mom, which do you think would be more difficult to manage - a long bow or a cross bow?

I generally wholeheartedly endorse any interest that either boy brings forward.  Even, reluctantly, if it means learning about the various methods by which medieval knights eviscerated one another.  It gets a bit challenging for my ego, however, when it's clear that I have no capacity to answer the questions that come to me.  Even to fake it. 

Mom, which is the harder mineral - pyrite or olivine?

Worse than that, is when I get a question that I should at least be expected to answer at a primary level.  And still I embarrass myself.  I tell them that they should not judge their own level of intelligence on their assessment of mine.  It skews the baseline.  And makes them feel smarter than they really are.

Mom, what's E=MC2?

God bless Google.  That's all I can say.  When I was a kid, it was to the stately set of World Book Encyclopedia, with their gilded gold, Bible-paper thin pages, that my mother ran when my brother and I came to her with questions.  Google wasn't even a word let alone an idea.  How far we've come.

Perhaps it's just me but I really wasn't interested in learning about medieval architecture when I was in grade 3.  I honestly doubt that I was even aware of the medieval era until sometime in high school.  And even then, I didn't care about it.  Nor did I care about the periodic table of elements (still don't) or the ranking of mineral hardness (nope, just don't care).  But I love the fact that Nicholas does.  And he cares a lot.  

I can now tell you why spiral staircases were an essential component in a castle's defense against enemy attack.  I can tell you about the difference between quartz and amethyst.  And I can give you a (very) basic overview of Einstein's theory of relativity.  A world of information, literally at our fingertips.

But another question, posited a few days ago by Andreas, stumps Google.

Mom, how do you know that you love somebody?

One of the things I love about hanging around kids a lot is that they make you answer questions like this.  And force you to be thoughtful about how you answer it.  A question too big for Google and just big enough for me.