Our little scientist

(written by Jonathan)

I know that every parent thinks their kid is a genius but seriously, Xander really impresses me sometimes.  He often shows me he's as bright as he is determined.  For example, one day last week I thought it important to teach Xander about the historically important movie "Top Gun," starring Tom Cruise.  Now, I only played the scenes that had fighter jets flying, because as bright as he is, he's still a 4 year-old boy.  For those of you who haven't seen "Top Gun," most of the exciting scenes involve fighter jets training with each other, doing amazing high-speed maneuvers.  Xander LOVES anything that flies and was enthralled.  But in the last fighter jet scene the hero, Maverick (Tom Cruise), and his wing man Ice Man (played by Val Kilmer) encounter real enemy Mig fighter jets and have to put their hard-won training to the test.  At one point during the dog fight Tom Cruise fires a missile at an enemy Mig which blows the Mig's right wing off, making it tumble out of the sky.  The pilot parachuted out immediately.

"Daddy, Daddy..." Xander said to me, so I paused the movie.

"What's up, Xander?"

"The missile blew up the planes' wing!" he replied.

"Yes, it did," I said, wondering where this was going.

Xander continued, "Well, it can't fly after that because without a wing there can't be any air flowing over the wing, and that makes it lift, and that's how planes fly so now it can't fly!"

I froze, looking at him.  Replaying his words in my head to make sure I heard it right.  After what seemed a very long awkward silence on my part, I said, "Yes...Yes, that's right, Xander.  The plane can't fly without wings and air flowing over them.  That was a very good explanation on why that fighter jet can't fly anymore.  Good work, Xander!"

I thought I was just showing him an exciting fighter jet movie, but he was seeing a physics experiment in action.