How can I explain a 6-year-old what a dictionary is?

Should I say it's an outdated version of ChatGPT 😬 ?

Yesterday, Darielito brought an unexpected gift from school... A physical dictionary.

Darielito: Dad, look this is cool...
Me: Oh WOW, it's a dictionary!
Darielito: What is this for...
Me: Umm, Ahhh, (thinking hard.... Should I say it's an outdated version of ChatGPT? Umm, I don't want to say that about a dictionary.)

I haven't read one since high school days. So I got caught in the task of explaining what a dictionary was to him.

In a flash, inside my brain vision model, I saw memories of:

- An old Larousse Dictionary
- The Encarta Encyclopedia
- Wikipedia
- Google
- ChatGPT and LLMs

Oh man... time flies... I'm getting old. But I felt so lucky.

Me: Look Dari, a dictionary was a precious treasure when I was a kid just like you. For doing homework, learning new things and fighting boredom. (As an only child, the dictionary often became my companion, a gateway to fascinating words and their meanings. )

Darielito: Ohhh that's cool Dad, (heavy bombardment of a gazillions other related questions .... but that's another post). 😂

I smiled at Darielito's curiosity. Although times have changed, the desire to learn remains constant. As he flipped through the dictionary's pages, I knew it would open up a new world for him, just as it had for me.

Perhaps, one day he'll be explaining dictionaries to his own kids, talking about a time before AI assistants were everywhere like they will be.

We're living in amazing times... I'm excited.... Be excited.

P.S: I'll be sharing big news soon. Stay tuned. (Clue: It's not a dictionary nor another child 😅)