Re: Welcome!! and cute GM!!

I've found before 7 years old most kids (not all) do not seem to be able to comprehend most issues outside of themselves.

Who does? Eventually, everything relates back to ourselves in some way. Otherwise, even we adults tend to lose interest if we can't find some way of applying the information to our lives. Not always, but predominantly so.

by intellegent conversation I mean two sided communication on a topic without trail off. I don't mean discussing philosephy or nuclear fusion theory. Most little kids under 7 IME start talking about a subject and trail off unless you constantly resteer the conversation or get lost in the confusion until they bring you back full circle.

Ah, but some of the best conversations I've ever had (with adult OR children) jumped around to so many tangentially-related topics that you begin to look at the bigger picture, the interwoven tapestry that is life and the world around us. Small children are especially attuned to the big picture--it sounds like a contradiction, I know, but they aren't hung up on adult classifications of importance and non-importance, big and small issues, etc. They say reality as it is--everything is connected to everything else--and they are ideology-free.

Which is why, when given all the relevant details of a problem and put in a way that they can understand it, children often are wiser problem-solvers than adults are. They don't reject possible solutions out of a need to be politically correct or religious or any of that other nonsense adults use to divide themselves into 'Us' and 'Them'.

Of course, long convos about certain issues can also be satisfying. But they focus your attention narrowly, which is different than the 'Connections'-style convos you can have with small kids. Ever seen that science program on TV called 'Connections'? If you have, you'll know precisely what I'm talking about. If you haven't:

http://www.documentary-video.com/displayitem.cfm?vid=854

By the way, welcome to GC.