Who Knows

I haven’t seen the kids much lately since I have been traveling a lot, but I got to see them yesterday, They asked if I could take them to the library to get library cards. I had taken them a couple of years ago, but the experience was just too foreign for them. A huge room full of books in English? About subjects they did not know? Not interested. Yesterday  though, Noah (11 years old) and Kay Lee (7 ½ years old) were super excited to get their very own library cards and check out books. I have been worrying about Noah’s lack of reading skills, but he has really come along this year. He even told me he was going to pick out a chapter book. That’s impressive.

Kay Lee is an excellent reader for being only seven years old and an ESL student. She is very bright and caught on to reading quickly.

In the car on the way to the library, Noah asked if there are dinosaurs. Here is the conversation:

Me: There used to be dinosaurs, but they aren’t around anymore. They’re extinct.

Noah: When did they get extinct?

Me: A long time ago. Thousands of years ago.

Kay Lee: What month?

Me: What month did they disappear?

Kay Lee: Yeah. What month did they disappear? And what day?

Me: I don’t know. No one knows. The only way they can tell is by finding dinosaur bones and looking very closely at them. Then they can figure out when they lived.

Noah: Can we go to one of those places to dig up dinosaur bones?

Kay Lee: One person knows.

Me: One person knows what?

Kay Lee: One person knows what day the dinosaurs disappeared.

Me: Oh yeah? Who’s that?

Kay Lee: God. But he’s not telling.

Me: That’s probably true. God probably knows what day the dinosaurs disappeared.

Kay Lee: God knows so much that he must be a scientist.

We had arrived at the library by then. Kay Lee picked out two books from the Fancy Nancy series and Noah chose the chapter book I Hate Middle School.