Where I attempt to answer the question my three-year-old asks me when I’m putting him to bed
Last night we read Roald Dahl’s ‘Danny the Champion of the World’.
We got to this line on page six:
‘Many Romani children, he said, had been born in it and had grown up within its wooden walls.’
The line of enquiry began.
‘Dad, what is walls?’
So, Fred already knows what walls are. He regularly builds walls with all the accompanying narration that simultaneously makes no sense but still conveys a solid conceptual grasp of what walls is.
Is he searching for something deeper here?
So, I tell him that walls are something humans create to create a sense of space or ownership. We build walls with windows and doors in them and call them houses. We build walls to keep things in or to keep things out. We put up walls to feel safe. We put up walls to feel in control.
‘Dad’, he said, ‘is walls wood?’ Hmmm, may have overdone it.
Sometimes, walls is wood. But sometimes walls is bricks.
‘Is walls sometimes sticks?’
Walls is sometimes sticks too.
‘What is this wall?’
That wall is made from bricks, wood and plaster.
‘What is plaster?’
He then abruptly fell asleep, which was good news because I’m not sure I know what plaster is.
To do list: Google ‘what is plaster?’