Tell Me Something I Don't Know

Many years ago, I learnt that if I wanted the children to tell me something all I had to do was ask them. Well, not ask them directly but ask them in a way that inspired them into answering me. The way that I got around this was by asking them to;

Tell me something I don't know.

Normally, Dan Jon and Top Ender will then tell me something that they think I might not know. It might be something that they have learnt at school, something that they have read in a book, something they saw on the Internet, or on TV or learnt at Church or read in their Scriptures or even something that their Dad told them.

It's a conversation opener and one that I love to use, and normally only allow the children to stop after they have told me three things. Which is why one Sunday morning as Dan Jon and I were on our way to Church, I asked Dan Jon to tell me something I didn't know. Dan Jon claimed he knew nothing new and so asked me to tell him something that he didn't know. In fact, he'd like to know something about Elephants.

PippaD and Dan Jon

I thought for a moment.

What do I know about Elephants?! Diddly squat that's what!

Then I remembered, I do know something about Elephants, because of an episode of Goodness Gracious Me, from when I was a teenager. So I told him.

"Did you know there are just two species of Elephants? African and Asian. African elephants have ears that are a little like a map of Africa and Asian elephants have smaller ears that are similar to the shape of India."

Dan Jon did not know that.

Then I remembered a fact book I had when I was younger.

"Do you know that because of the bone structure in elephants feet, they are the only mammal that can't jump?"

Dan Jon did not know that either.

I didn't have to think hard about the third thing about elephants that Dan Jon didn't know.

"Despite what Disney has made us think, elephants can't fly, no matter how big their ears!"

Dan Jon cracked up at that and together we marvelled over how much I actually knew about elephants, despite Dan Jon having asked for what he thought was something I wouldn't know anything about.