August 10, 2022

Apparently, the average four-year-old asks 73 questions each day.

If you are currently raising a preschooler, that number may feel a little low. 

I love kids’ questions. When my children were little, I started a Google file to record some of my favorite inquiries (some of which show up in my new picture book, “You Wonder All the Time?”)

• Where do colors go at night? 
• What makes teeth fall out? 
• Why don’t cats like leashes? 
• Why don’t whales sink when they sleep?
• Why are they called “summer-salts” instead of “winter-peppers”? 

At some point, most of us stop asking 73 questions a day. And the questions we do ask are often more procedural than wonder-ful. Where did I put my purse? When is my doctor’s appointment? Who is picking you up from school? What did the dog just eat?

But maybe there’s something to learn from kids’ pressing need to question, question, question. Their wonder is generative.

Warren Berger,…