Bigger Than, Smaller Than

Sometimes it’s hard to quantify what a child truly understands.   For example, just because my daughter can sing the ABC’s song, it doesn’t mean she has a true grasp of the alphabet.  Numbers are similar too in that children count them and talk about them, but how much do they really understand when it comes to one number in comparison to another?

From time to time we play games in the car.   We each take turns picking a game that takes two or three minutes to play together.   It might be who can name the most animals that begin with the letter ’S’ or I Spy or sing along songs or even some crazy made up game that takes my daughter almost two minutes to describe thus leaving almost no time to play the game before her turn is over.

Today when it was my turn I was right out of ideas so I quickly came up with a number game.   I said this was the the ‘Bigger than/smaller than” game.  I was going to name a number and they were going to tell me a number (any number) higher than my number and then any number lower than my number.

I started out easy with the number six.   My daughter had this: seven was higher than six and five was lower than six.    Good.   She then took a turn picking the number one hundred.   I said three hundred was higher and two was lower.   Next picked one thousand.    My daughter wasn’t bothered by this, saying three thousand was larger than one thousand and ten was lower.    (And I was impressed).

We continued the game, getting all the way into the millions and my daughter wasn’t confused even once.   She chose on about the fifth round the number zero as the “smaller than” number and I told her that was a great choice.

Then she asked me a question: what number was lower than zero?  She didn’t seem dismayed at all by an answer of “any number that starts with ‘negative’ like ’negative three'”.   She asked what numbers were larger than zero and I told her any number that didn’t have ‘negative’ in front of it was larger than zero.

I was surprised that my children had a much better grasp of numbers than I expected them to have at this age, especially since they have no idea how much money it takes to buy dinner, an apple or a ride on the merry-go-round.

The Big Boy Update:   Uncle Bob has been collecting updates for my son this week and just came around the corner to tell me this one.   Before bed tonight my husband put on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse—a show the children haven’t seen in a long time.   My son sat down on the couch in front of the television, smiled and said, “this is a great show, it has no guns or violence.”

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter may have a bladder infection.   Today’s trip up the mountain was ended early for half of us because she only wanted to squat, go to the bathroom repeatedly, complain about stinging and grab her crotch.   Thanks to Nana’s collection of “just in case” antibiotics and my best friend’s doctor advice on what to give my daughter, she's feeling much better tonight.   We’re treating for both yeast infection and bladder infection but the good news is one or both are working and my daughter is in much less discomfort.