I work at a job where I have the ability to encourage children's interests and desire for learning, and it is the most wonderful thing to get to see children light up about what they might enjoy. And while I'm sure that many of these kids won't grow up to be seafaring, I want to let them know that there's always that option out there.

"Why did the horn go off?"
"Can you give me a guess to why you think it went off?"
"Was it to say hi to the boat next to us?"
"You're pretty close, actually. We're passing them, so we should let them know that we're nearby."

I get it, constant questions can become annoying, but children need to ask questions to learn about the world around them. Children don't have the background on most things that adults do, and that's not their fault. They just haven't been around as long as adults have. Every new experience is a place to learn something, and that should be indulged. This doesn't even limit itself to children, I still ask a lot of questions.

While children want to know about their environment, they know more than they think they do. I like to let the kids try to come up with reasons why something might happen. This lets them think creatively and connect what they already know about the world. This is better than just giving them an answer, because it allows them to learn reasoning.

Children's interests are usually put down as childish and school is seen as the best interest that children can have. While school is great, not all children will enjoy what they learn in school, and they should still have the chance to pursue interests. So when kids on my boat ask me anything about my boat, I'm going to answer all of their questions and let them be interested.