What do crickets eat?

What month should I plant my lettuces, kale, peas and beans in the Northeast?

What started WWI?

How do you get eczema?

What do deer ticks look like?

What’s the difference between a sugar maple & a “regular” maple tree?

These are just a few of the myriad of questions that I am bombarded with on a daily basis, living with an inquisitive 4 year old.  “But, why?”

It’s humbling to have a young child constantly asking you questions to which you have to reply, “I don’t know the answer to that, my love.”  You don’t realize just how dumb you are until you’ve said that 50 times in a day!

But, I do always follow up that statement that I have no idea with “let’s look it up together”.

And that’s exactly what we do.  We go sit down and ask google whatever question she stumped me with.  And we get the answer.  Many answers. And pictures. And it’s superb to have that knowledge at our fingertips!

No more skimming through a multitude of reference books trying to find your answers; the dictionary, the thesaurus, the medical encyclopedia, all encyclopedia, the cultural reference guides, etc.  No more frustration when you cannot find the answer because the resources are outdated or not available.

Virtually all of your questions can be answered with a couple keystrokes!

Take full advantage of this, no matter your age.

Frustrated with a math problem?  How do I get the derivative of a number?  Look it up.

Somebody use a big word that you’d never heard of before?  Ask google.

Your history teacher reference the Spanish-American war, which is not covered in your textbook?  Don’t let the day go by without at least skimming an article which details it.

It is so incredibly easy to expand your knowledge since the birth of the search engine.  Don’t take it for granted and do take full advantage of it!

When was the birth of the search engine?