Sunday, July 1, 2007

Playing a guessing game with kids

My cousin went for a holiday to the U.S., this summer, with her kids. The one thing that had strikingly changed after their return was that her 2 & a 1/2 year old son (my nephew) had started talking in complete sentences. He described random events from his trip with a lot of enthusiasm. It seemed that his vocabulary had also expanded over the holidays. So, i decided to play a word guessing game with him. I would describe something to him and he would try to guess what I was hinting at.

Clue 1: What is the word for the place with all the controls for an airplane?
His answer: umm..AIRPORT! (not the word I was looking for :( )
Clue 2: No, I mean the place where the pilot sits to fly the plane...
His answer: The pilot's SEAT in the plane! (quite appropriate..but not what I had in mind!)

He could see that I was getting quite impatient and was running out of better ways to describe the word...so, he interrupted my thought process and said this:
'Oh, you mean that place with all the FAKE switches to control a flying plane..the cockpit?!'
Yikes, where did he get that from? I don't EVER want to be on a plane with fake control switches...(Kids do say the darnest things!)

Turns out that he had seen one of those model cockpits at an airport in Baltimore and was quite fascinated by it.


This reminds me of another weird conversation that I'd had with my niece when she was around 2 years old. She was looking for something, but had no clue as to what it was called. So she decided to describe it to me, hoping that I'd understand what she was talking about. Here is what she said:
'Hey, do you know where I'd find that thing in which I can put a pencil and turn it around so that all the 'kachrapatti' (garbage) comes out?' (with appropriate gestures)

She was looking for a pencil sharpener!

4 comments:

Unknown said...

hahaha..remember the kachrapatti one..it was crazy!!..haven't laughed like that ever!!..too funny!

Nikita said...

That was a howler.
All my siblings have gone crazy. Rahul is writing emails that never stop with huge words in it...and not just by Rahul's standards.
And aparna's first blog is actually almost philosophical and quite emotional...also not just by aparna's standards.
Very funny stuff.
Take care

Hipp-ie-campus said...

Nikita,
This is blog is easily accessible to the world..you might not want to mention how crazy everyone in the family is...well I just spelt it out, anyway.

Parul said...

my sister and i should be getting royalty from you!!!!