I was toddling around the house just earlier. Randomly picking things up, doofing on the computer, talking to the kids, etc. I hadn't heard from Beau in awhile. He was unusually quiet...the kind of quiet that sets the parents senses a-tingling. And mine were certainly a-tingle. I look in our activity nook and see him crouched over something. A light bulb. Not just a light bulb. A dead one. Smooshed. Kaput. I said, "SWEET GRANDMOTHER'S SPATULA!!! What are you DOING?! I mean what in the name of Abraham Lincoln were you THINKING?!?!" He calmly says, "I was just trying to use reverse engineering to figure out how this light bulb works...." Stinker. Please let me know that you want to learn how something works, and we can do it safely. I was VERY angry...but then...not so much.
When Isaac Newton was young and at Cambridge, he would take a metal spatula and use it to poke the back of his eyeball. He soon noticed that he would experience different color sensations depending on which part of the eyeball he put pressure and soon created a color map. It sounds like you have another Isaac Newton in the making.
Sounds like one of those "Your so SMART, I could just strangle you " kind of moments! Anger, fear, and amazement combined.
My daughter had one of those weird little "electronic pets" (kind of a weird little hand held video game thing...very simple, ran on watch batteries). So the batteries died...and without asking for help or anyone noticing, she got a screw driver, got the back off...found the batteries...and decided to "charge them" by sticking a pipe cleaner end between the batteries and then shoving it in an electrical wall socket. Only, she knew there was something about electricity that was dangerous...so rather than put it in the wall socket with her bare hands, she wound the pipe cleaner around the tine of a fan cord plug...and gripped the plug to plug it in. The outlet flash burned her fingers, the fan motor burned out and smoked, there were sparks and smoke...until the wire burned off the fan cord tine. It was pretty explosive. I honestly thought the house had been hit by lightning until she showed me her fingers...and I saw the toy....and started asking questions between her sobs. She was FOUR. Can't believe we were so lucky that she wasn't badly hurt...and also can't believe how amazingly complex their thoughts are at that age. She put some brilliant ideas together. Thinking back, I'm as impressed as I am horrified. In the moment though...wow was I scared!
