We had another "math surprise" tonight. At bedtime, A likes to ask us the answer to math problems that he makes up. Tonight he brought up negative numbers... We have no idea how he learned of negative numbers - I mentioned to him about two months ago that when you get less than zero, the numbers become negative, but that's the only thing I have ever told him on the subject. He was saying things like "what's negative 1 plus 100?" I would say
"what do you think?"
"99." "Right!!" [Shocked looks exchanged with husband over A's head]
A: "What's negative 100 plus 98" Me: "What do you think" A: "negative 1." Me: "Close, very close."
We went through about ten different math problems like this, though mostly with regular positive numbers.
At the grocery store, he had been quizzing me with three digit addition, and I finally told him that I went to law school for a reason, rather than becoming a mathematician. He replied "Well, you need to become a mathematician." I think I'll leave that to you, sweetie!
1 comment:
Another recent exchange on negative numbers:
A: What's 88 minus negative 20?
Me: Well, when we substract a negative, it's the same as adding a positive, so the answer is 108. So what do you think 88 PLUS negative 20 is?
A: Um (thinking...) 68.
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