It just is

Jack was up super early the other morning. He was 'cited' as it was the day we were making our Christmas gingerbread house. So, at 5.30 am we decided that, instead of waking up his little sister, we would head down to the local beach where there are some limestone rocks, to go rock climbing. Jack loves climbing over the rocks and exploring the shoreline.

So there we were, and, as a typical 4 year old he was asking question after question. "What's this? How did that get there?" Most questions required a pretty direct answer of which he could understand. Then came, "Why is sand different to the rocks?" 

Now with these types of questions, any parent will tell you that there is a real urge to seek the most simple explanation and move on, or , in serious circumstances to use the "It just is" line. I have to admit that this thought did cross my mind, but we had time, there could be a pretty cool lesson with this. And so I began, "well, with this type of rock, it's all about erosion..." and so it continued. We got some little rocks and rubbed them against larger rocks to see the effect of wind and waves over time. We looked at where the waves had carved out caves into the rocks and where the rocks were surrounded by sand. It took some time, but I thought that Jack was understanding all this to a certain point.

We grabbed a coffee and a hot chocolate from the local cafe, and on the way back to the car I thought I might test my 'student'.

"So, can you remember what erosion was?"

"See this rock dad." Jack pulls out a small limestone rock from his pocket." Well that was a big rock but the wind and big waves rubbed it lots and made sand and now it's a little rock."

I silently ridiculed myself for ever thinking that "it just is" would ever cut it!