Younger offspring offers a way to distinguish dreaming from conscious experience:
I thought I was really awake, so I reached up to touch a cloud, but instead of feeling fuzzy like a cloud would feel, it was like touching an empty space. So that's how you can tell if you're dreaming, if you touch the clouds and they feel like empty space.
The child hasn't read Descartes yet, but we've got all summer.
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Walking across the field to school the other morning:
Younger offspring: How come the earth is round but when you're walking on it, it looks flat?
Dr. Free-Ride: The earth is pretty big. We're so tiny compared to the earth that the curvature isn't something we notice.
Elder offspring: This field…
Dr. Free-Ride: What have you been learning about in science this school year?
Younger offspring: Lots of stuff.
Dr. Free-Ride: Like what?
Younger offspring: We learned about rocks and minerals. Rocks are made out of minerals, and some rocks have more than one kind of mineral in them.
Dr. Free-…
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Walking to school the other morning:
Elder offspring: What's that smell? Is that smoke?
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Actually, the kid (or you) have it wrong way 'round! If you touch a cloud, and it feels "fluffy", you're definitely dreaming....
I *have* touched clouds, and they feel like fog! Take your kids up in a small airplane sometime....
Yeah, the "fluffy" part is probably wrong, but touching clouds and feeling nothing seems like a reasonable way to figure out that you're dreaming.