Nuggets for Children

A Nugget is a simple idea given to a young child that will explain the world truthfully and create a foundation for important future lessons. Each Nugget was inspired and is rooted in the teachings of the Catholic Church. These are told from the father's perspective.

Nugget 1 Question

Who made you? (Nugget given to Nick)

Nugget 1 Answer

God, Mami and I made you. Mami and I got together and invited God to make a new person. You grew inside Mami and then were born.

Look at your hand. Do you know how to make hands? I sure don't. And Mami doesn't either. But God knows. God made you in a unique way that not even Mami and I can understand. Each part of you is pretty special and very complex. You need to take care of what God made by taking care of your body.

God could just make people all by himself, but I've never seen that. I have seen him make people through the help of Mamis and Papis. But this should only be done once two people get married. It doesn't make any sense to get together and invite God to make a new person until after you are married.

So if God made you with the help of Mami and I, who made your brother? (God, Mami, and Papi). So just remember that when you hurt your brother. He was made by God, Mami, and Papi. And we love him as much as we love you. Remember that your brother is also a unique and wonderful creation made by God, Mami, and Papi. It makes me angry when you hurt other people - especially people that I helped make.

What can you create? (songs, art, and thoughts art are three examples). Can you create cookies? (yes). Are you sure? You can combine things to make cookies like flour and sugar and eggs. But can you make an egg? Can you make a chicken? I don't think so. But God can. Just remember that you can do lots of wonderful things with the things around you. But don't forget that you are not The Creator. You can not create things. You can use things that God has created. Only God can create. Make sure you thank God for the things that he creates that make you happy.

Nugget 1 Future Topics: sex, marriage, abortion, homosexuality, death, talents, desires, personal hygene, exercise, eating right, Heaven/Hell.

Nugget 2 Question

What are the jobs of the parents? (Nugget given to Keith Winkeler)

Nugget 2 Answer

Parents have been given the priviledge of children and are supposed to do three things: teach, provide, and protect.

Parents teach by setting examples and correcting children. Kids also get rewarded and punished either explicitly or implicitly through their choices (that have natural consequences). This is an effective way of teaching. Parents are the primary teachers of their children. School (with professionaly trained teachers) is secondary to the parents.

Parents provide food, shelter, clothing, love, and other needs of the children. Parents provide what children need, not necessarily what they want.

Lastly, parents must protect their children. Children must be protected from danger and from negative influences. But parents can't lock children up at home and isolate them or else they are violating the teahing role. Parents have to let children make mistakes and learn from them.

Nugget 2 Future Topics: marriage (and the role of woman and man), punishments, rewards, freedom, privacy, priviledges

Nugget 3 Question

What does God ask kids to do? (Nugget given to Keith Winkeler)

Nugget 3 Answer

Listen politely, tell the truth, and following directions.

Nugget 3 Future Topics: obedience, love.

Technical Insught #1 (not faith related)

Why does my bouncy ball glow? (created by Nick)

Nugget 4 Answer

Your ball glows in the dark because it can store light inside it. When it is dark, the light stored in the ball is released and you see this as a glow. There is not enough light to read a book because the ball can't store that much light.

Light is a form of energy and the ball can save up the light. (What is another form of energy?) Light is not the only form of energy. There are two more that you can easily see and feel: electricty and heat. (What things can store electricty?) Batteries. So a battery can store electricity and your bouncy ball can store light. So the bouncy ball is like a kind of battery, but it only stores light.

Did you know that you can convert electricity to light? That's what a light bulb does. (Papi pulls out a flashlight and shows the batteries and the light bulb. Alex does an experiment: he takes the batteries out and switches on the flashlight. He predicted that the bulb would not light and verifies that this is indeed the case.). So look at the lamp in the bedroom. That light bulb is very bright. It sure has some powerful electricty in it. In addition to giving off energy as light, it also gives off another form of energy: heat. (Papi and Alex touch the bulb and observe that it is hot). (How does the light bulb in the lamp work?). The electricty in the lamp is converted to light within the bulb. It wastes a little energy in the processes and gives it off as heat. You can see this light in the room and it goes into your bouncy ball. This light is stored in his bouncy ball. When the light is turned off, the electricity is gone, the bulb is dark, it is no longer hot, and his bouncy ball not gives off some of the light it has stored.

Important lesson: you can not create or distroy energy. You can only convert it from one type to another. So you can convert heat to light, light to electricty, and electricity to light. But you can not create new energy. That is why the light bulb will not work without electricty. If you don't charge up your bouncy ball, it will not glow. This Law is called "Conservation of Energy" and can not be broken by anyone. You will study this law for many years and still be amazed by it. There are other types of energy and I will tell you all about them later.

Nugget 4 Future Topics: Einstein's principle of energy, mass, and light (E=MC^2), kinnetics, magnetics, gravitational potential, and why the sun shines.