What do you know?

"Mommy, what time came after the cretaceous period?"
Hmmm... (google) "Paleogene"
"Oh, right. There weren't any dinosaurs then, were there?"
uh... (google) "nope"

"Mommy, what does the Lochness Monster look like?"
Well, I don't really know. I've never seen it, and no one has actually been able to see one. It's more of a legend. Some people thought they saw a monster in Loch Ness - that's in Scotland.
"Where's Scotland?"
Uh... (world atlas) "Here is Scotland, right next to England, and there's Ireland... see over here is North America... and here's the Atlantic Ocean, Here's Europe, Asia and Africa - and see this island? The top is Scotland.  Loch is a scottish word for something you know.  You know how there's lots of words for water?  Like, ocean, river... and what's that other one that sounds like Loch?
"LAKE?!"
Yes, loch means lake - so the lochness monster is a 'monster' people saw in lake Ness.
(google) Here's a picture of how people describe what they saw.
"Whoa, that looks like a pleisiosaur!"
Yep, that's exactly what it says right here.
Anyway, no one knows if Nessie is real because they have never actually seen one, or any evidence of them. No bones from dead ones, or babies or anything.
"ok"

I could have just said 'I don't know' - or 'it doesn't matter', but then, how would I have had such awesome conversations with my junior scientist?
Now, please don't get me wrong - not all our conversations are scientific, but the point is that we HAVE conversations. A LOT of conversations. It's a great time in their lives - this time where they can't read enough to dive into an Encyclopedia without a little help from Mom.  They do look through encyclopedia's about science and art, on their own, but usually we are learning to use these reference books, and reference internet sources.

Peter got this interactive science set for Christmas, and he uses it ALL the time.  The pen reads information to him, when he places it on a link, picture, color, word or paragraph.  So, I'll hear an adult reading to him from a room, occasionally and have a slight pause before realizing it's just his 'reading pen'.

We have a few volumes from The Book of Popular Science, which the kids all love.  The illustrations are from 1963, so some of them are pretty great! From learning where the water goes when we flush the toilet, to the constellations, there's some really great information in here - and most of it isn't too outdated.

We also have a few volumes from Childcraft The How and Why Library.  These have a lot more pictures, and keep the kids busy for long stretches of time.

I don't feel like I "push" any of this information on them.  I just have the resources available to help them on their journeys of discovery.  I really don't think any child is too young to have reference books handy.  From before they started preschool, they at least enjoyed the illustrations in these books.

Here's to learning about everything you're curious about!