Less than Twelve Parsecs

It is Sunday after lunch. Four kids, aged 1 to 4.5 years, are bursting with energy in a little park. What do you do? You invent a game to keep them busy. Well, at least that's what I did. The Game:   "Find me a stick that is exactly This Big." [hold your hands at some steady distance apart, e.g. one foot]. Why it was great:  It encourages search and discovery, teaches size estimation, measuring, comparison. How it went: The first sticks the kids found were too big. I measured them by aligning my fixed-distance hands on the sticks, and gave them feedback: they need to be this much smaller. After several tries each, one child decided to try a minuscule length of about 2 inches. We measured that one too. Yes, we needed something way bigger than that. This kept them busy for about 10 minutes, everyone having a great time in the process. Even 15 month-old Gaius brought several sticks for measuring. The Ending: All was well, until I turn to a very straight-faced

Here is Mara, who drew our US family as spotted snails. They are holding hands because they are on the road. There is Daddy, Mommy, Sister and Gaius, then Grandpa and Grandma and MeeMee and PaPa. Here's a better view:

I was brushing my teeth one morning and Gaius came around the corner and brought me my glasses. Thinking of how to make use of this helpfulness again, I said: Gaius, can you go get me a shirt or some pants? He comes around the corner with this: A little small, but I can make it work. Next: Gaius, can you bring me a shirt? He goes back and comes back a bit later with this: Now I've got all I need to get dressed in the morning!

Mara: I want to make Icecream! Greg: I don't know how to make icecream, Mara. Mara: Ask the Internet how to make icecream! Greg: What's the Internet? Mara: The Internet is somebody that teaches people how to make icecream.