Now, on to the first post. I have to write about my genius mathematician son - Caleb. (I know, I know, you were expecting me to tell a story about Ryan or at least Luke, right? certainly not expecting a brilliant math story about a five-year-old? Just wait.)
I recently purchased a math game from one of those Scholastic book order forms (which I absolutely LOVE, btw). Anyway, I thought it might be good for Caleb and Luke both - we could work on addition and subraction, and they could learn those pesky "math facts", which we never learned when we were kids, but still managed to do well in life, anyway... (exhibit one of many: run-on sentence; but like I said, I write like I speak - running on and on...)
So, a couple of days ago Caleb and I got the game out and decided to play. One side is an addition game, and one side is a subraction game. We started with addition. Now, you have to know that Caleb, though only five years old, is extremely smart. He is reading at at least a first to second grade level. I know this because his teacher at preschool told me this yesterday. She said to make sure when he starts Kindergarten, in 6 monthes, to make sure they have a plan in place for his reading skills. (Incidentally, the conversation started while she was loading him into the car. She said, "Caleb was just telling me what a noun is. I asked him how he knew that & he said he plays school with his sister." Okay, the truth is out. I am not responsible for any of his incredible skills - it is mostly his ten-year-old sister, Grace, well, Grace and genetics, which I can claim credit for.) (exhibit two: another run-on sentence, plus an absurd number of commas in one sentence.)
Soooooo, we are playing the addition game and you roll two dice and have to add the numbers. I expected to show caleb how to start with the numbers on one dice and then count up using the other dice. His first roll he rolled a 5 and a 4. As soon as I started trying to show him how to figure it out he said, "Easy. Nine."
I asked him, "how did you do that so fast?"
He answered me, "it was an easy one. I know that 5+5 is 10, so 1 less is 9."
Now, I'm not a math teacher, but I do know that this is the kind of thing they usually have to teach kids to do. I asked Grace if she had taught him that and she said she hadn't.
Then a bit later he got 6+3.
He sat for a minute, obviously thinking, but not using his hands to count or anything, then he said, "9".
Then he said, "wanna' know how I figured that one out?"
(obviously, I had been really impressed with his skills up to this point, so he decided to show off.)
I said, "Yes! I really want to know how you figured that out!"
He said, "Well, it's like a phone. I know that on a telephone, there are three rows of numbers, and each row has three numbers in it. I know that 6 is the last number on the second row, so if I am adding 3, I go to the last number on the third row, which is 9."
Yeah, anyone else ever figure out a math problem that way? I didn't think so.
Anyway, like I said, he's a genius. I'm not even going to try to take credit for this one. (especially since we all know all the other areas of Calebs life that I don't take the blame, ahem, I mean the credit, for.) (exhibit number 3: I just ended a sentence in a preposition - enough to send my sister, Bridget, over the edge.)
Soooo, I am concluding this post with a picture of my brilliant little angel, Caleb.
