Let’s begin at the beginning
      Do you know what state you were born in?  Do you know when your birthday is?  I’m sure you know!  In fact, you’re probably thinking about your next birthday party right now.  Your birthday is when you were born.  You weren’t always around.  Your parents have been around a lot longer than you, but they haven’t always been around either.  Do you know who your parents’ parents are (hint: they would be your grandparents!)?  Now here’s a challenge: Do you know who the parents of your parents’ parents are?  Whew!  I bet your head is spinning just thinking about the question!  What about the house you live in?  Has it always been around or did somebody build it?  It seems like no matter what you look at in the world, everything that is around you seems to have started at some point.  Your books, computer, pet dogs, pet cats, your Aunts, your sister, your favorite shirt, your bed, your favorite movie, pizza, your coach, that weird piece of food sitting in your fridge, and so on.  It all began somewhere just like those things.  You know, the universe (our world, our solar system, galaxies, stars, and everything in outer space) also began to exist.  Yep!  I wouldn’t lie to you about something like that.  And don’t take my word for it, every scientist and big thinker thinks the same thing.  It’s like money.  Everybody agrees that having money is nice.  Do you know anyone who doesn’t like money?  Well, the same goes for the universe – nobody thinks the universe has always been around.  Want to know why?  Here are some facts:

Fact #1: The whole universe is stretching outwards like a balloon.  Do you know it means to blow up a balloon?  It means that is starts off real small and then as you fill it with air, it gets bigger and bigger and bigger until … pop!  The universe is doing the same thing – it’s getting bigger and bigger … but it’s not going to pop, so don’t worry!  This means that the universe was really teeny tiny at some point a long time ago.  In fact, it started at a single dot smaller than a grain of sand.  Just imagine all those stars and planets coming from a single dot!  I don’t know about you, but it blows my mind.  Anyway, that dot wasn’t always around either.  That was just the starting point when the universe started to “inflate.”  Before that dot, there was nothing at all.  Now imagine that!  There was nothing at all before that first dot.  Scientists and big thinkers use telescopes and instruments that tell us that the universe is inflating.  So there’s no question about it – at some “point” the universe was a point, too!

FACT #2:  Some things in outer space are still warm.  Have you ever sat down in a chair that was still warm?  It means that not long ago somebody else was sitting in it.  Or, ever have a glass of hot chocolate … I mean really hot chocolate?  Well, that means that you got it right off the stove or right out of the microwave.  What if you found a cup of hot chocolate that was cold?  It probably means it’s been sitting out for a while, huh?  Well, the universe has parts of it that are hot like hot chocolate.  What do you suppose that means?  It means that those parts were put there not too long ago.  Now if the universe (or a cup of hot chocolate) had been sitting out forever, all of it would be cold by now.  But that’s not the case with the universe.  It still has lots of hot parts.  So it couldn’t possibly have been around forever, right?  Well, that what scientists think too!

All of those things that began to exist had to be caused
     You know what else is interesting when you think about it?  All of those things in the world that began to exist have a cause (a cause is something that made something else.  Have you ever made a drawing?  Have you ever dyed Easter eggs or built a kite?  Well, you’re the cause of those things then because you made them.  Congratulations!  You’re a cause!).  So, the hamburger you ate last week had a cause.  Somebody cooked it.  Somebody made your bed.  Somebody made your toothpaste.  Somebody made your favorite song.  Somebody made that game system you love to bug your parents with.  Well, it seems that everything that began to be had somebody or something make it.  There is a fun TV show on the Discovery Channel called How It’s Made where they show how toilet paper, pocket knives, bathtubs, signs, candy, and a bunch of other things are made.  They show how factories and people make all of these different things.  Is there anything you ever wondered how it was made?  I always wondered how computers were made.  I guess that’s why I started to go to college.  I wanted to know how computers were made so I could make them too.  People are pretty smart to be able to make all of these cool things.  Would you like to make things when you grow up?  What would you like to make?