This question recently plagued me when I reviewed in my head a conversation I had with Ben.
‘Daddy, what’s that?’
‘It’s a chimera.’
‘Oh.’
‘Do you know what a chimera is?’
‘No.’
‘Can you say chimera?’
‘Camira.’
‘Close enough, a chimera is an amalgam of two or more creatures.’
‘Oh. Why?’
‘Well sometimes you have to represent more than one facet. Do you know what amalgam is?’
‘No.’
‘It is a mix.’
‘Is it a mix creature?’
‘Yes.’
So part of my dilemma was should I have used the word mix creature to start with. But a small conversation with myself later and I realised a couple of things:
1. I was using terminology that he will benefit from knowing and understanding.
2. We drilled down to a meaningful state for him, which is deductive steps, another useful skill.
3. He created the term mix creature, I referred to the amalgam as a mix not the chimera.
So the word usage broadened a range of skills, and basically I worry too much and over-analyse everything. Still, advanced stuff mix creatures for a child under four.
