An Elementary Perspective: Shooting Stars

My daughter Julia came to live with me two years ago for school. It isn't easy for me to raise someone who is practically my nine-year-old clone, but that is exactly what I find I am doing with Julia. Through our judo and soccer practices, reading, writing and arithmetic, Girl Scouts, and Japanese language classes, we occasionally have a conversation that connects us both in a sometimes deep and usually humorous way. Hopefully, you will be as entertained as we are.

Shooting Stars

Julia and Daddy are walking home from school.  Julia has learned something at school and, per custom, she wants to know everything about it from Daddy…

Julia:  Daddy, what’s a meteor shower?

Daddy:  Well, a meteor is this space rock and sometimes they come directly to the Earth.  When they hit the atmosphere, they catch fire and shoot across the sky.  A meteor shower is when a whole bunch do that at the same time. 

Julia:  Well, then, what’s a “shooting star?”

Daddy:  Um, I think it’s the same thing.

Julia:  Well, why didn’t you say that in the first place?  Why did you have to say, “It’s a space rock that blah, blah, blah?”

Daddy:  Sigh.