7 June 2009 9:34 pm
Math of Ages
"Mommy, when Dylan is six, will I be four?"
"Yes, Andrea."
"And, when Dylan is seven, will I be five?"
"Yes, you will be."
"When Dylan is eight, will I be... six?"
"You will be, Andrea."
"Mommy, when Dylan is nine, will I be seven?"
And, when Dylan is ten, will I be eight?"
"You sure will be."
"When Dylan is twenty, will I be ten?"
"No. When Dylan is twenty, you will be eighteen, Andrea."
"When Dylan is one hundred, will I be seventeen?"
"No. When Dylan is one hundred, you will be ninety-eight."
So went the conversation when I was pushing Andrea on the swing this afternoon. I didn't think much of it at the time, but now that I think back on it, it is impressive to me. Granted, Andrea's math ability became constrained when she crossed the boundary of ten. However, she was either able to keep straight incrementing two sets of numbers. Or, she was able to subtract two from each number in her head. Either way, I'm impressed.
Both Dylan and Andrea are currently in the mode of challenging my addition skills and keeping me sharp. We often start simple, with something like "What's one plus one?" They then take the answer and add it to itself. Well, they ask me (or Geoff) to add it to itself. They don't seem to get bored with it, so I often find myself adding numbers in the thousands. In my head. While driving. Perhaps there should be a law against that.
