by Mark Hansen

Created on: March 04, 2009   Last Updated: March 05, 2009

How do you explain to your 3 year old daughter how a phone works?

One evening I was talking to my 3 year old daughter on the phone when she asked,

"Daddy where are you?"

At first, I didn't quite understand what she meant. She knew I was at my flat, after all she'd dialled the number from her mum's house all by herself - and mighty proud I was too. Then I reasoned that she was not sure exactly where I was IN my home.

"Well, I'm laying down in the lounge room darling - you know, the place where we watch videos." Satisfied by my concise description I waited for her flash of understanding.

"Daddy, you sound like you're INSIDE the phone!"

Ahhhh. It hit me - it was time for THAT talk, the difficult one where you're nervous and don't know quite how far to go with the detail. No, not the one about sex - that's easy. I'm talking about the one where you have to explain the workings electromagnetic devices in the household. But how do you explain electromagnetic field theory to a 3 year old. Think, think, think, pause, big breath.

"Well darling what actually happens is . . ." Pause again to collect thoughts.

"When you talk into the thing your holding in your hand, your voice travels down the wire coming out the bottom and goes to the dialling bit, then follows the wire down through the floor and outside. Now, do you know the big poles on the side on the road with the wires hanging on them?"

"Yes."

"Well then your voice goes up the wire and joins a cable on one of those poles and follows the road all the way to my place, and then comes inside on another wire all the way to my phone and out through the thing I'm holding in my hand and into my ear."

"Oh I see Daddy." Phew, she understood, I didn't think I could remember that again.

"But Daddy, you still sound like you're IN the phone."

We take for granted so much of the technology that surrounds us but to children it is all new and magical - maybe to a few of us adults as well. Of course when I was young there was only radio, a phonograph and a bit later on, black and white television. So I had plenty of time to assimilate each new invention as it arrived. Not so for our children, but luckily they have a great thirst for knowledge and are fearless of technology. Perhaps a little too fearless at times.

Unfortunately there are some electronic devices in the home that look just a little too much like letter boxes. The computer floppy disk slot is perfect for those tiny hard-to-find-again objects, while the VCR entrance offers a sizable opening for bulkier items. With a little guidance however, my daughter soon learnt the benefit of keeping these post-boxes empty. We could watch her favourite videos and play games on the computer. At 2 she could load her videos into the VCR, and was using the mouse like a veteran at 4 to draw beautiful pictures on the computer. The television remote control was pretty much mastered at 3. With prompting, even the mute button was used to silence commercials - though it was really hard to get her to switch off the sound when adverts for kids toys appeared.

Now at age 7, after years of careful training, she can also use the microwave and the answering machine. One thing she can't do is program the VCR, but there aren't many people who have mastered that skill. As for email, fax and the World Wide Web . . . Just the other day we crossed into that realm.

"You see that small grey box next to the computer with the cute little red lights on the front?"

"Yes, Daddy."

"Well. Once-upon-a-time there lived a teeny-weeny electron named Ernie . . ."

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