What? More chemistry?

I keep finding myself saying, "Isn't it amazing how a child, when given the freedom to, can easily understand such difficult and complex ideas." I guess that I am mostly saying this to myself. Because my friends and family don't want to hear this over and over and over again. But, I am still amazed. That a child of just ten years understands how liquid has a saturation point. Now this is my wording of coarse, but I was made to understand this in high school chemistry. And I only came across it through books and class. She came to discover this late last night while watching one of her favorite television programs about life in the depths of the ocean. She paused the program and asked, "Mom, how come the water doesn't sink down into the sand at the bottom of the ocean like it does when I pour water into the sand at the park?" And then right away spat out at least a dozen more questions at me. As I tried to answer her, each time she would come back with, "No that's still isn't right," or "No that doesn't make sense."

So I suggested an experiment. I took out a glass and filled it with water. Next I opened the pantry and took out the sugar. I then had her scoop a spoonful of sugar at a time into the glass. As she stirred she said, "Yes, I know the sugar will dissolve in the water." Then after many, many scoops she could see that some of the sugar was starting to gather on the bottom of the glass. "Oh, I can see it's like the sand in the ocean. Now I understand." Here is the saturation of a liquid as defined in her words, "That's all it can hold. I can see that the water is full." And I have come to understand that the fancy technical terms don't really matter, especially at the age of ten. But she holds the key to the true meaning because it was her desire to learn it. And it became her desire because of playing with the sand and water at the park.