Teachable Moment

The other day, Sam took Jaden with him into the convenience store to get some drinks. Jaden loves animals, and while in there, he spotted one of those "grow in water" animals - a giraffe. While in the store, Jaden "accidentally" opened the package, so Sam rightfully felt that he had to purchase it (kind of like the "you break it, you buy it" rule, only "you open it, your daddy will buy it"). He is usually very good about asking before he opens things because he knows that we have to give the "boy" (which is what he calls everybody) money first. But I guess the excitement of the giraffe got to him this time and he forgot all the rules. After reminding him that things are not ours until we pay for them, he was very excited to have a new baby giraffe. I have to admit, I was kind of excited myself. I thought Jaden would enjoy getting to put the giraffe in water and watching it grow. I showed him the picture demonstration on the package wrapper, which showed the giraffe getting bigger when it was in water. So we filled a small bowl with water and Jaden dropped his giraffe in. He checked every minute or so to see if his giraffe had grown yet. Each time, he excitedly announced "He's growing!" We left the giraffe in the bowl over night. The next day when Jaden checked on him, he had about doubled in size! Major excitement!! Jaden wanted to know how he got bigger. So I took the opportunity to promote drinking water, which we are always trying to encourage Jaden to do more of. So I told him that the giraffe drank lots of water and it made him get big and strong! Jaden totally bought it, as he hurried to get a cup, filled it with water, and guzzled it down! Turned out to be a great learning opportunity!