@jessmahler yes, you're definitely doing it right!
I still remember--I couldn't have been more than eight years old, out at night walking with my father and seeing the full moon, I asked "why does the moon shine?" and he said that it was the streetlights and stuff from Earth being reflected back.
although I couldn't articulate it at that age, at that moment I realized two things:
1. that wasn't right--there's stories of the moon shining long before humans had electricity. ...
@jessmahler
and
2. I couldn't trust my father to give me correct answers. it wasn't a case of "give an obviously wrong answer to make the kid look it up," either; he was consistently inconsistent in giving me correct answers--he just liked being perceived as being "right," and if he didn't know he'd happily make something up, trusting that I'd accept it.
my *mother* would say "I don't know, look it up." and I still trust her word over his, to this day. (there's other reasons too, heh)
