“So it is.”
“And three and three is six. And six and five is eleven!”
“Yes! How did you know that?”
(I know she ‘knows’ that – we’ve done various bits of number work – it’s an ongoing thing – but I didn’t think she had those sums fresh in her mind right now and anyway, she seems to come to it from a different, fresh angle every time.)
“From the clock!”
It’s funny, Lyddie’s always been obsessed by clocks even in her first year of life. She could tell the time before she learned anything else to do with numbers or reading. I’ve noticed her using it as a reference for numbers before: in writing them she always used to glance up at a clock to check which way round they went.
Anyway, I then made the cardinal mistake of trying to interfere with encourage this natural learning process, as well-meaning parents are so often wont to do:
“So. What’s four and four then?”
She clammed up. “I don’t know.”
“Well, look at the clock…” I pressed on, in spite of alarm bells loudly ringing.
“No thanks. I’ve had enough of that now.”
Then I left it alone, at last. One day I will learn to just say: “Oh! That’s nice, dear,” like the wisest parents always did.
2 Comments
July 5, 2009 at 9:55 pm
That’s so reassuring to read
About a million times a day I think: “ooh I should have followed that lead that Adan/Molly started, but I was too preoccupied with something else.”
(call social services alert, obviously)
But yes, innit great? Adan, yesterday, was looking at slices of bread: “two halves make a whole, don’t they?” and then, a second later, “and there are two quarters in a half,” closely followed by, “and four quarters in a whole.”
I didn’t go anywhere with it cos I was starving and wanting my lunch but now I’m glad I didn’t and have the perfect excuse for continuing on in my general preoccupied half-listening state.
July 9, 2009 at 8:56 am
Hi Lucy,
Always glad to give reassurance!
I’m with the Continuum Concept as regards ‘too much focused attention not necessarily being a good thing’ – not that I’ve actually read the blooming book yet! (Must add it to ‘blooming books to finally get around to reading’ list..)