Learning

"Tha's the blood inside my fingers," said the Boy Wonder confidently, admiring the hand he'd placed on an LED uplighter in the crystal display in the museum. It's several months since we first explained this to him, and at the time he was plainly dubious about it, but since then the information has embedded itself in his brain as accepted knowledge. The capacity of a small child to soak up information still amazes me, thirty years after the Offspring passed through this stage.

I have to say though that I don't completely envy anyone with whom the Boy shares today's lesson. In the volcano room he watched a film of a volcanic island exploding and said, "Why is it doing that?", and R explained the build-up of pressure by getting him to purse his mouth and then blow air into his cheeks until his lips burst open - inevitably expelling a small fountain of spit and virus particles along with the pent-up air. "Oh my days!" he said, and it was hard to argue with that.