My two year old asks a lot of questions. He asks ‘What is mummy doing?’ and ‘What is that guy doing?’ He also asks ‘What is the park doing?’ and ‘What is that building doing?’
I answered the park question with "It is waiting for you to go and play there.’
Any suggestions for answers?
That’s how I learned to read, I asked Dad “what are you doing?” and the answer was “read.” Of course that prompted “what’s read,” and after a few iterations I was able to figure it out. They were pretty surprised when the kindergarten teacher called them to yell at them for “forcing their poor daughter to learn how to read,” as they thought I’d just been looking at the pretty pictures…
Does blinkingkid go to kindergarten? That leads to “where is Daddy/Mommy/Aunt Jan?” “working.” “What’s working?” “Like kindergarten for grownups.” The child of a friend once thought and said “so sometimes you don’t want to go but you do go and it’s ok?” Yeeep. Just like that.
What is the building doing? It’s keeping people out of the sun. It’s keeping people warm/cool. It’s got bathrooms people can pee in.
What is the bus doing? It’s carrying people to meet other people. And how does the bus know where to go? Because the driver tells it.
Why? is a wonderful picture book that goes in and out of print.
It is about a girl (Lilly) that drives her father mad because she is always asking, " Why?" to everything. Then, one day as these things happen, aliens land on the planet set to destroy everything and Lilly asks one question that saves everyone.
I love this book right down to my baby toes.
After answering the why questions a every other time or so, we’ll ask her…‘what do YOU think…’ Ask her the question back to spark some creative conversations!
Her:What is mommy doing?
Us: What do you think mommy is doing?
Her: Making CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAke!
My experience with the “why” and “what” games led me to conclude that children mostly just want to interact verbally and these are proven ways to get a response/keep the conversation going.
I always tried to talk to my children “in an adult way.” Here’s an example:
Offspring: What is the building doing?
Mom: Would you like to talk about buildings?
Offspring: Yes.
Mom: There are lots of kinds of buildings. Houses and Barns and Fire Stations. What can you find in a barn?
Offspring: Pigs!
Mom: Yes and cows and chickens. What do chickens say…
This technique may work for you–or it could be totally useless. 
This is also my experience. A kid only knows a couple of ways to start a conversation, so ‘why?’ often means ‘talk with me!’ You don’t have to actually answer the question–just start talking about whatever it is.
Hmm, that’s a good technique. I’m putting it in my toolbox. Thanks as_u_wish.
That is good stuff.