Lightning never strikes the same place twice.
for grown-ups
What we actually know
It's a saying, and it isn't true of lightning. Lightning often strikes the same place again and again, especially tall, pointy things that stand on their own. The Empire State Building in New York is hit about 23 times a year on average.
The saying usually means something else (bad luck doesn't repeat), and the round lets your child notice that a saying about luck isn't a record about lightning.
Source: NOAA National Weather Service, "Lightning Myths" (weather.gov/safety/lightning-myths). The round also ends with the Weather Service's safety line: when thunder roars, go indoors.
What kids usually bring
- "It's a saying everyone knows." Kea's reason too. A saying can still be wrong.
- "I've never seen it happen." True for nearly everyone: most people never see a strike at all, so it's a very small part of the picture.
- "Tall things get hit a lot." Exactly what the record says.
- "Maybe it means bad luck doesn't come twice." A thoughtful reading: that's what the saying is usually about.
A note on the Echo: it stands wherever the last thing it heard puts it, and when it hears the record it moves, "but I only heard it". Being moved by evidence you can check is different from being moved by whatever you heard last.
At dinner
Ask: "What's a saying everyone says that might not be true?"
Then the one rule: say their reason back before you give yours.
The round never tells your child what to think. This card tells you what we know, so you're never caught out. If your child wants to argue with it, that is the point.
