She's asking that question...no, not THAT one...

[motherinferior]

Why is the sky blue?

PLEASE can anyone tell me? I know about sex, dammit. But when it comes to the sky all I can say, vaguely, is 'because there are blue bits in it'. There's more to it than that, isn't there?

The sky isn't actually blue. It has no colour at all. The real colour is the one you see at night when the earth is turned away from the sun. The blue colour is caused by the sunlight reacting with our atmosphere

And the sea isn't blue either, it is clear, and reflects the colour of the sky, which isn't realy blue! Ain't science grand!

Dd asked me wy the big bang blew up last week! That took some explaining, not!

Oh god, I remember this one. I said (embarrassed to admit this but anyway) "ask daddy/Dp". Oh no! But I've decided that since I'm the one who answers "what does mythological/hypothetical mean?" they can be the ones that answers boring (to my mind) physics questions. Dp/Ex dh are also responsible for answering "why can we always see the moon?" and "how did humans come to be here?" (ds says he believes in God and the stars having had big bang theory and religion explained briefly!) We've also recently had "Have they finished building the world yet?", to which I answered "no." Seemed to satisfy him

Anyway, here's a slide show explaining. Didn't understand it fully myself but it's early and I couldn't be arsed to read it all!

Motherinferior ... LOL ... ... thank goodness for FairyMum!
I was just saying to DH today that DS is beginning to ask impossible to answer questions like "What are rocks made of?" ... Well, that is impossible for me to answer because when it comes to scientific stuff I am useless ...
What ARE rocks made of?

FairyMum, how do I explain that to a two-year-old...?

Ghosty. here you go!

Granite? Lots and lots of sand? Tiny rocks?

I only know because my DD asked the same question and I told her the sun painted the sky blue for us. Are you supposed to give the correct answers to children? I always make things up. Is that very bad?

Thing is I want my daughters to grow up and support us in magnificence, blushingly attending their many degree ceremonies and saving the world in manner outlined below, as well of course as pushing back frontiers of feminism, carving out new ground for women, etc etc.

Will now go back to putting words on page for money myself...

It's great when you can find the answers, but sometimes you just have to say, 'I don't know'. When I was little I remember being very annoyed with my mum because when I asked her how electricity worked she said she would tell me when I was older, as I would be too young to understand. In fact she didn't understand it herself. I spent years waiting for her to tell me, and when I finally realised the truth, I remember being very disappointed in her that she couldn't admit to not knowing something. It made me doubt everything else she said.

The easy answer to what is ....... made of, is chemicals. We are all made of chemicals, as is everything in and on the earth. Anything that has a physical substance is made of chemicals, which are made by combining the elements in different ways. For example salt is made of Sodium ( a highly reactive metal which 'burns' when you put it in water) and chlorine, a yellow gas which is highly toxic (Killed in WW1)

I always try to give my children a correct answer, but I am hard pressed sometimes, and I am a science teacher!

What I love to tell them is that we are all children of the stars. We are made up of chemicals that were first formed in the stars, so in a way we are all made of star dust. Just cos it is science, it doesn't mean it has to be without the 'wonder' factor.

Did you know that all of your cells (except red blood cells) contain DNA, and that if you unraveled it you'd have 2 metres in each cell! Enough DNA in a person to go to the moon and back 6000 times......isn't science grand!

I always try and answer dss's questions, or try and research an answer if I don't know it ... ever since a day when he was about 2.5 - he asked me something, and I was bored/couldn't be bothered, and said "I don't know", so he replied "We can ask daddy or grandpa then. They will know, because they are men" ...

Yes of course. I haven't yet decided which Nobel Price for my DD to aim for. Might not be in science. I might go for the peace-price or possibly literature.

My DS is going to be a professional footballer and buy his mummy an island somewhere hot!

It is of course very important to outline your expectations early on,)

Oh, that was of course a response to motherinferior

I'll try the stars. How wonderful.

DD1 is already quite convinced that daddy is a better driver. Which happens to be true (he's driven for 20 years or something, I've driven for five months during which I had a baby) but is still harsh to hear.

Have a look at

www.sciam.com/askexpert_directory.cfm

from the scientific american, which answers a lot of questions

also

www.sciencemadesimple.com/

which is specificaly for kids, and even answers the 'Why is the sky blue ' question!

www.why-is-the-sky-blue.org/why-is-the-sky-blue.html

Great site, CW.

I think owning up when you don't know the answer is a very important thing to do. It lets the child know that science is all about finding out why and how things happen. I always tell the kids in my classes that 'I don't know, yet' isn't a wrong answer and that all that matters is that we all do know at the end of the topic.

I agree hmb ... I used to love saying "I don't know, let's all find out ..." when I was teaching (primary ... and managed to avoid science due to other much better teachers being timetabled to teach my class Science and me teaching their classes History and Drama ) ... there is nothing at all wrong with telling children that you don't know but you are prepared to find out ....
I love it now that DS is this age (he is 4 soon) even though I came out in a cold sweat with the 'rocks' question ...
He asked me the other day if we could make a volcano - he had been read a book about volcanoes at kindy ...
The magic thing about where we live is that we live at the foot of a real volcano (a dead one, but still!!) so ... DH took DS up the volcano at the weekend and now at home we are making a paper mache volcano ... we also made toffee so that he could see how it is runny when it is hot and hard when it is cold .... I love it!!!! What is fantastic is that I am learning at the same time as him because that stuff bored me to tears when I was at school (crappy teachers in Science and Geography) ...
Sorry .... am rambling ... will shut up now
PS....Thanks for that link WWW - you are a star

Water IS blue!

Is it? The water I drink isn't ....

Ghosty - do you live near Mt Eden? Have you been to Rangitoto? A good trip is to go to White Island - active volcanic island - you have to wear gas masks because of the sulphur. Your DS would probably love it.

If you want to make a volcano that works go to

www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/nature/volcano/

The chemistry isn't the same as the real think, but it is easy to do, if a lttle messy

The enchanted learning site is a good one for all sorts of education things, well worth a visit.

Florenceuk ... no - not Mt Eden ... would love to live there but it is very posh and expensive ... we live in Mangere Bridge ... right next to Mangere Mountain which exploded 18000 years ago! But volcanoes are two a penny here ... we see Rangitoto from Granpa's house and drive past Mt Wellington to go swimming every week and then of course there is Mt Eden, Mt Hobson, the two over in Devonport (can't remember their names!)
I keep telling DS how lucky he is because Redhill didn't have any volcanoes!!!!!!!
Now that the weather is getting warmer I am planning a trip to Rangitoto ...

Thanks for that hmb ....