Buddhist Homeschooling

Sep. 7, 2006

Negative Numbers

Okay, this is an amazing story! We were at a friend's house, daughter was playing with her best friend's little brother (Adam, 2) and daughter was playing a game where Adam would get points if he could open the door. She counted down from ten, he struggles with the back door, oblivious to any 'game' going on, btw - she gets to zero and goes:

"zero one, zero two, zero three..."
"What's 'zero three'?" I interrupt.
"It's, you know, like three less than zero, Mom." Says daughter, like - Duh, Mom!
"Oh, I get it! Those are called negative numbers. We count them by saying negative one, negative two, negative three," I explain gently.
She begins the countdown from 10 again, all the way to NEGATIVE 10!
I'm thinking, "There's no WAY she gets this. This is not possible. When did WE learn about negative numbers? I bet she doesn't know what she's really doing or saying." So I ask her: "Which number means Adam has more points: -10 or -2?"
With a tone again of Duh, Mom! she replies, "Negative 10."

(and various other happy, celebratory icons....)

Okay, we NEVER touched on this subject before. We've done math with numbers only, which is first grade, we've started in on numbers greater than 10 (i.e. 10+10, etc.) and she's fine with graphing on a simple level. We've never, ever mentioned negative numbers. Somehow she gets it?! I don't understand it, but I'm going to just GO WITH IT! I just need to step it up a notch now! My mother was joking with me and telling me I am going to have to take additional college courses in the next few years in order to keep up with Daughter!!!! She'll be a little math genius like in that movie Mean Girls - Lindsay Lohan's character, Cady! She'll be the cutest little mathlete, LOL! No, seriously, I won't do that to her if she doesn't want to, but it's cute to get carried away when one's child does something AMAZING!

I learned two things from our conversation:

1. Never think something is impossible.
2. Never underestimate Daughter's ability again.

I think I need to get a second grade curriculum for Christmas, LOL!

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Comments

Sep. 13, 2006 - Mathletes

Posted by auntie shelle

SHE CAN'T JOIN THE MATHLETES IT'S SOCIAL SUICIDE! lmao

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Sep. 13, 2006 - <i>Untitled Comment</i>

Posted by me

oh, and isn't -2 MORE than -10?

Toughmutts edits by asking: Which means I owe u more money? If I owe you 10 bucks, then I owe you MORE money than if I owe you only 2. That makes neg. numbers soooo much easier if they're thought of in that way.

Edited by toughmutts on Sep. 15, 2006 at 7:22 AM

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About Me

Buddhist/Christian Homeschooling family trying to get a handle on all the newness that comes along with being a first time homeschooler with values not reflected in the majority of my city!