cat named pig

Siena has been working on counting lately, and I love it. This school of hers must be pretty good, because I know I haven’t done much in the way of teaching her about numbers. My version of any math more complicated than adding single digits:

“Hon, what’s thirteen plus fourteen?”

Or this one, which really gets him since he hates buying storage containers almost as much as he hates being my human calculator:

“Hon, if these baskets are fifteen dollars each, how much would it be if we bought twelve of them? And do you think twelve is even enough?”   

And my specialty, guaranteed to make him turn purple:

“Hon, what’s the balance in our checking account right now, minus the cost of [insert large item I want to purchase or project I want to have done to our house]?” 

Especially when it’s followed by:

“Oh, it’s a negative number? But we really need [name of item or project].” 

He loves that conversation. 

So far, Siena’s counting begins with a numerical sequence solidly rooted in reality, then veers off toward the more. . . umm. . . fanciful approach I sometimes tend to take with numbers myself. For example, a game of hide-and-seek or counting the time it takes to put shoes on, or other counting/getting ready games we play, will often start out normally enough. One through ten, followed by eleven through twenty, smooth transition to twenty-one, and so on. But as we approach the upper thirties or forties, something goes awry. Today, thirty-nine was followed by eleven-one, then eleven-two, etc. 

Also, when estimating, Siena almost always uses the number “ninety-teen.” Especially for anything big or old. For example: ”There were ninety-teen birds on that roof!” as we drive by the Pigeon House. (Side note: why do certain houses consistently attract huge congregations of pigeons? And is there, like, a checklist somewhere of the steps you can take to ensure your house does not become one? I know what I’m Googling after this post is done.) Siena also frequently refers to things she will do when she is older, explaining to anyone who will listen that, when she is “like ninety-teen,” she will be able to do cartwheels or wear earrings.

This actually doesn’t seem that strange to me. I’ve been known to use “a krillion” and “a bazillion” in situations where real numbers I had actually heard of before didn’t have quite the oomph I needed to convey just how many pigeons we kicked at saw in the Piazza San Marco (warning: you will probably vomit in your mouth a little if you follow this link and watch the video) or just how many times I’ve asked Matt to clean the fish tank.

Anyway, one of the few things I do remember from high school math class, or maybe junior high math class, sometime that feels like a frillion years ago, is the fact that there are things called “imaginary numbers” and one of them is i or something. Umm. . . OK. Whatever. Are you guys (mathematicians) sure your three-year-old didn’t make that up? Because it sounds exactly like something Siena would come up with.  

We have lots of mathy and sciencey-smart friends who are gonna love this post. Maybe they can help my kids get through high school second grade math class. Because I’ll be busy. I have, like, i things to do that day. I mean ninety-teen.