Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school "whowhatwherewhenwhyhow?" ;

I love the question "why?", it's my favorite question by far, for two reasons:

1) A well-formed why-query is one of the best tools to unlocking the secrets of the universe.
2) It's a question that can be asked infinitely, so it's one of the best ways of annoying someone for an extended period before they notice you're doing it on purpose.

It's always best when you start out with a couple of very earnest whys, then smoothly transition to doing it for fun. You get to learn something, and then it takes a while for the other person to notice you've switched motives, so this rhetorical strategy is rewarding in both ways.

On the opposite end, when DD is hammering me with whys, if I think she's earnest but I need a break, I just tell her we'll talk about it more later. And if I think she's not, I just bounce the question back to her.