Mrs. Brainiac here, back with Part 2 of Why You Should Lie to Your Kids. Creativity, resilience, curiosity….all great traits that are encouraged by lying to your kids. And those traits result in kids becoming innovative and thoughtful adults that have the grit to get ahead by making mistakes, fixing them and moving on to become engineers, medical professionals and those guys that invent great snacks like Hostess Cupcakes©.
I’m here today to share an amazingly simple method to increase your child’s curiosity, cognitive thinking, and problem solving skills by Telling Them Lies.
Let’s start back out ten years ago in an inner city fifth grade classroom. Jessica Brainiac, our teacher-daughter, was starting a unit on the Ice Age and glacial formations. As a culminating activity, she explained that the class would be taking a trip in a time-travel airplane back to the Ice Age after they completed their studies. What a great way to motivate kids to learn!
Most of these kids hadn’t done more than travel “up north” so you can imagine their excitement at traveling back in time!
In anticipation, they enthusiastically gathered information about the Ice Age and glacial formations, learned about fun stuff like how time-travelling planes stay in the air (Bernoulli’s Principle. What did you think, magic?), and what to pack.
And that’s how planes stay in the air! Easy-peasy.
Everyone was allowed one checked bag and one carryon. Miss Brainiac sent home permissions slips (which amazingly many parents actually signed), made them passports, and finally the big day arrived.
Miss Brainiac had set up rows of chairs like an airplane, numbered seats and all, in the all-purpose room. Miss Brainiac was dressed in her flight attendant/pilot uniform and welcomed the kids with a big smile. The students had packed blankets and snacks and wore nice warm jackets in spite of the warm fall weather. As she walked them outside on the “tarmac” to the “plane,” one little gal panicked and yelled, “Wait, I’ll be right back.” She came racing back from the classroom a minute later with a tissue in her hand. “Remember, Miss Brainiac? They didn’t have bathrooms and toilet paper during the Ice Age!”
The kids were pretty excited. They couldn’t believe their teacher had a flight attendent certificate in addition to a pilot’s license and a teaching license! And imagine the surprised and delighted expressions on their innocent little faces when they realized they WEREN’T REALLY GOING ON A PLANE! OR A TIME MACHINE! OR TO THE ICE AGE! Haha, what fun! Their sweet little cries of, “Hey, this isn’t a plane,” and “Hey, you aren’t a pilot.” And “No fair, we were supposed to go to the Ice Age,” filled the room. “You tricked us!” Haha! Joke’s on you, kids!
After everyone settled down and took their assigned seats (aisle, window, center) they buckled up and listened to the safety announcement. Miss Brainiac took the pilot’s seat and off they went. After a successful and smooth take-off, they were on their way to the Ice Age. Flight Attendant Jessica served up some teeny tiny bags of pretzels and complimentary beverages after putting the plane controls on autopilot. “Ice Age, the Movie” was shown as the inflight movie.
The kids had a great time and at the end of it all, none of them realized that they had painlessly participated in a great learning activity on the Ice Age and glacial formations. And I’m pretty sure that those students remember more about the subject then whatever they did in other classes that year.
So, start lying to your kids. It’s fun for everyone and they might accidently learn something along the way.
