My 6th-grade son was working on his Eart

Ask

My 6th-grade son was working on his Earth science homework tonight and came across a question about why seasons occur.

He confidently wrote down:
"In the summer, the Earth's orbit brings it much closer to the Sun, which makes the air really hot. In the winter, the Earth moves far away from the Sun, which is why it snows."

When I tried to gently tell him that's not quite right, he looked at me like I was crazy:
"Dad, think about it! If you stand right next to a bonfire or a heater, you're hot. If you back away to the other side of the room, you're cold. Space is cold, so when Earth gets closer to the Sun, it's hotter. It's common sense!"

I know that the 23.5-degree axial tilt and direct vs indirect sunlight is the real cause, but if I just lecture him or force him to rewrite the definition, he'll just nod, copy it down, and completely fail to understand the physics.

Could you give me a step-by-step Socratic tutoring guide for tonight's desk session:
1. **Name the Misconception**: What is the formal cognitive name of this misconception, and why is the "campfire/distance" intuition so deeply entrenched in middle-schoolers?
2. **3 Socratic Desk Questions**: What exact sequence of 3 guiding questions can I ask him so he discovers the flaw in his own logic (e.g., contrasting Northern vs Southern hemisphere seasons, Perihelion in January)?
3. **Desk Flashlight Demonstration**: What simple 2-minute physical experiment with a flashlight and a piece of paper can visually prove how tilt changes energy concentration per square inch?
4. **Parallel Verification Problem**: What changed-situation question (e.g. asking about seasons on Uranus with a 98-degree tilt or a planet with zero tilt) can I give him to verify he truly grasps the concept?