Little Blog’s big sister, Sunshine, has discovered chemistry. She found the periodic table in one of her books, and a friend has been explaining to her about the elements and their names.

“O is Oxygen and H is Hydrogen and when you put two Hydrogens with one Oxygen, you get H2O and that is really water,” she explains over supper to Little Blog, who pretends to absorb every word.

Dad decides to show how clever he is: “And H2SO4 is Hydrochloric Acid, which destroys everything it touches.” He hastens to add that he only knows this because of a rhyme he memorised in high school. Before anyone can stop him, he recites it:

“Little Johnny has gone to heaven,
and will be seen no more,
For what he took for H2O,
was H2SO4.”

Little Blog instantly declares: “He was lucky.”

Sunshine is horrified: “Why, Little Blog?!”

Little Blog: “Well, then he wouldn’t have to eat his vegetables, would he?”

Little Blog has learned to swim on her back. But now she is very worried. Her thoughtful expression finally erupts as she turns to Mom.

“Mommy, what is that thing that pulls you to the Earth?”

Mom ponders the question for a moment, before realising Little Blog is not talking about monsters under the bed.

“”Do you mean gravity, Little Blog?”

Little Blog: “Yes,that thing.”

Mom: “What about it, Little Blog?”

Little Blog: “Well, it doesn’t work.”

Mom: “What do you mean, Little Blog?”

Little Blog: “When I float on my back in the pool, if that gravity thing was working, I couldn’t float like that. Otherwise why can I float? Gravity isn’t working.”

(News Flash: Government to probe violation of Laws of Motion)

“Daddy, what was it like in the olden days?” asks Little Blog one fine 21st Century morning.
“Well, Little Blog, it depends how olden you mean,” Dad replies, wondering if he really looks THAT old.
“I mean like in those old photos, Daddy,” pointing at a wall decorated with old family photos.
Dad: “Some of them were from when I was a child, Little Blog, but most are from long before that.”
Little Blog: “Is it from when your mommy and daddy and their mommies and daddies were children?”
Dad: “That’s right, Little Blog.”
Little Blog gazes at the photos in wonder, then pops the unexpected but inevitable question:
“Daddy, in the olden days, was there colour in the world?”

First it was Einstein; now it’s Pythagoras and Euclid who come under Little Blog’s critical scrutiny. Geometry as we know it is just not ambitious enough for her world view.

It is that time of morning at nursery school when parents get to spend a little time with their children before class begins, and Little Blog is showing Dad some of the posters on the wall. He stops at one that shows the four key shapes little children are taught.

“What are these shapes called, Little Blog?” Dad asks.

Little Blog is utterly bored with the question, but indulges Dad and identifies the square, circle, rectangle and triangle. Then she sighs:

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The holidays are now far behind us, but Little Blog’s mind is still travelling. She gazes wistfully at the sky as a jet leaves a long, white streak across the blue expanse. Then one of those numerous random thoughts flies across her mind:

“Daddy, do you know why God made the sky so big?”

Dad: “No, Little Blog. Do you?”

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