A recent conversation with Sidney, six-year-old. We are making castles from dry sand. His concept of a castle is somewhat different from mine.

EZRA: Have you ever seen a castle?

SIDNEY: No! A castle is the biggest thing in the world!

EZRA: Oh. What's the next smaller thing, after a castle?

SIDNEY: Uh.... partment?

EZRA: Really?

SIDNEY: My uncle lives in a partment! No wait! He lives—I think he used to live in a partment and maybe now he lives in a house. I'm not sure.

EZRA: OK. So is there anything bigger than an apartment (sic) and smaller than a castle?

SIDNEY: Um... a house maybe. I live right over there! (points) I mean, not over there—over there (points a different way) and then you go to where my neighbor has a dog house, and then my house is right be there.

EZRA: A house. OK. Is there anything bigger than a house and smaller than a castle?

SIDNEY: Uh... like a school!

EZRA: A school. I see. How about bigger than that?

SIDNEY: I don't know.

EZRA: What about a whale?

SIDNEY: A whale is the biggest animal except for a dragon.

EZRA: I see.

SIDNEY: There used to be dinosaurs and then they got transformed into a Komodo Dragon.

EZRA: They did?

SIDNEY: Yeah, God turned them into a Komodo Dragon. Cause they were too dangerous. That's what my dad said.

EZRA: God turned the dinosaurs into Komodo Dragons?

SIDNEY: Yeah they were dangerous and they could knock over glass.

At this point our conversation was interrupted by some competing six-year-olds, who presently thought it was fun to dump buckets of small rocks over the side of a platform, even if there was a teacher and another kid making sandcastles underneath. That somehow turned into an elaborate game of tag on the jungle-gym. I was disappointed that Sidney and I never got to talk about why it was such a problem that dinosaurs could knock over glass, or how that made them different from folks like you and me. Maybe next time.