Monday, January 19, 2004
Yesterday Benny learned about negative numbers. We were doing math in the bathtub with his tubby crayons. When I give him a problem to do, I make sure the answer is between 1 and 10, or usually between 1 and 5. When he writes his own problems, though, he's less cautious, which led to for example him figuring out the other night that 6+6=12. Fine. Last night though he asked himself to solve 1-2=?. I was A BIT TROUBLED but I said that the answer was -1 and left it at that. Then I showed him how to write -1 and he spent some happy time covering the bathtub with negative numbers up to 20 or whatever and I explained how negative numbers go up as they go down, so to speak, but more sensibly than that, etc.
Then Dan came upstairs with Sadie who was rooting around earnestly and needed nursing. So I went around the corner to Sadie's bedroom to nurse her and Dan stayed in the bathroom with Benny. Benny was showing Dan the negative numbers and also he was playing around drawing "math" on himself with the tubby crayons and I heard various things like "I need a blue butt" and "I'm a blue stripey nerble" and stuff. And various math things and I *THOUGHT* I heard Dan ask him "What is 1-3" and I thought I heard Benny say "negative two". So Dan came around the corner to check on me. He said, "Did you hear that?" I said, "It sounded like he said 1 minus 3 is negative 2" and Dan said, "Yes, he did, and then he promptly turned around and colored his penis blue." HAHAHAHAHA. So it is with our odd little genius son. He'll end up in an attic with sticks in his hair, revolutionizing mathematics and talking to a frozen eggplant or something.
PS This morning when he got up he wanted to do math and negative numbers right away so we learned how to do a number line which he can now do and the crowning glory of THAT experience was that he solved by himself the problem "What is 1 minus 4?" It is, in fact, negative 3.
Then Dan came upstairs with Sadie who was rooting around earnestly and needed nursing. So I went around the corner to Sadie's bedroom to nurse her and Dan stayed in the bathroom with Benny. Benny was showing Dan the negative numbers and also he was playing around drawing "math" on himself with the tubby crayons and I heard various things like "I need a blue butt" and "I'm a blue stripey nerble" and stuff. And various math things and I *THOUGHT* I heard Dan ask him "What is 1-3" and I thought I heard Benny say "negative two". So Dan came around the corner to check on me. He said, "Did you hear that?" I said, "It sounded like he said 1 minus 3 is negative 2" and Dan said, "Yes, he did, and then he promptly turned around and colored his penis blue." HAHAHAHAHA. So it is with our odd little genius son. He'll end up in an attic with sticks in his hair, revolutionizing mathematics and talking to a frozen eggplant or something.
PS This morning when he got up he wanted to do math and negative numbers right away so we learned how to do a number line which he can now do and the crowning glory of THAT experience was that he solved by himself the problem "What is 1 minus 4?" It is, in fact, negative 3.
