Maths and The Many Many Questions of My Child!

What is 50 add 15?

This question is just one example of the questions we are currently in a phase of. I say phase but I’m not sure it will ever end, if anything the questions are getting more intense and more prevalent. For around 3 months every single day we get questions like:

Is 4 add 4 add 4, 12?

What is 30 add 30?

If you add 10 onto 25 what do you get?

Is 7 add 7 add 7, 32?

What makes 18?

And so on and so on. And usually this is at the most inconvenient of times. If you read my last post you would see my son asked me about 4 add 4 add 4 while I was crying. I had poured my heart out and apologized to him and his response was to ask me a maths question. And this isn’t unusual,frequently he asks while I’m in the middle of something and he wants an immediate answer. I’m good with that if it’s something simple like 30 add 30. But when it’s ones like:

What is 19 add 17?

Is 309 add 262 equal 543?

Then that’s when I struggle. I’m good at maths but it’s been a long time since I needed to do mental arithmetic without a calculator while under pressure and I’ve certainly lost a few brain cells along the way. This particular branch of question has evolved over time and we have gone from simple maths questions to difficult ones and now he is including more questions around time, his favourite type of questioning. These questions aren’t around what time it is, or the concept of time. But the adding of time. And I’ve noticed my son is something of a genius when it comes to this….but only if he doesn’t have to think about it. He was in the bath one night and he asked…

Him: Is 5 o’clock 3 hours away from 8 o’clock?

Me: Yes, well done!!!

Him: Is 5 o’clock 4 hours away from 9 o’clock?

Me: Yes!!!!!!

Him: Is 5 o’clock 5 hours away from 10 o’clock?

Me: Yes!!!!!!!!!

Remember he is only 5. I was super impressed. Not only is this good maths, but it’s good time concept and working them out both together is impressive. This wasn’t the first time this had happened. This had happened a couple of weeks ago and I just thought it was a fluke but now I knew he could it, I asked if he could do it again. I asked if he could repeat what he had just said because I couldn’t quite remember what he had said. And this was when he faltered. I prompted him with 5 o’clock is 3 hours from 8…….and he couldn’t do it. As soon as he really tried to think about it he couldn’t do it. Or he wasn’t playing ball and felt embarrassed. He said he had forgotten what he said and so I left it at that.

The title of this post is what is 50 add 15? This particular question caused some issues. Mainly because I couldn’t understand what my son was saying. You know when someone says 15 or 50 and you get them confused with each other, well I thought my son asked what 15 add 15 was so I answered with 30. He said noooooo what is 50 add 15, but again I got confused and I thought he said what is 50 add 50 so I said 100. He said you aren’t answering right in his angry voice. So I said 65 and he was happy. This tells me that he already knows the answer. If he doesn’t then how did he know I was wrong. And as soon as I said the right answer he was happy. How does he know the right answer? If he does know the answer to that then that is pretty good. And also scary. How will I keep up with him?!

These questions although asked at an inconvenient time were not an attempt to get my attention, I genuinely believed these questions preyed on his mind. And this was shown by the fact that on Monday morning my son woke up fairly early for him….6.10am. He never ever gets out of bed by himself, he always shouts me so I heard him shout. Opened half an eye, checked the time, heard him shout again so crawled out of bed, found my way to his room in the dark and asked him what was wrong….

“Is 30 add 30, 50?”

I couldnt even tell you my own name let alone answer a maths question at this time. But of course I did. I pulled myself together and said no.

Him: “Is 20 add 20, 50?”

Me: “No”

Him: “Well what does make 50?”

Me: “25 add 25 makes 50”

Him: “I knew it was that.”

Me: “Get back to sleep for a bit”

Never before did I think I would be stood in my child’s bedroom in the dark at 6am (or thereabouts), half naked, a week before Christmas answering maths questions.  And I went and got back into bed and wondered if there was any other parents out there answering maths questions at 6.10am. Needless to say I did not go back to sleep, and neither did my son but he didn’t ask anymore maths questions until we “officially” got up. I told a work colleague this story and he said why did you say 25 add 25 and not 20 add 30. Well the answer to that is simple….I could work out from my son’s questions that he wanted to know what same number added up to 50, if I had answered 20 add 30 this would not have done the job. So instead of him being able to ask what same number added together makes 50 he had to ask a series of questions to get the answer I knew he wanted.

Numbers obviously bring him comfort. They are reassuring. And if you believe the same as Pythagoras (yes remember learning that at school..  3.141…..) everything can be explained by numbers. My sons comfort certainly can be explained by numbers. He is at his happiest and most relaxed when talking about numbers. Everything to him comes down to numbers. And he has a fantastic ability to remember numbers. I did a bit of research into this….and I have self diagnosed him as being hypernumeric. The traits or signs of hypernumeracy are as follows:

• An intense fascination with numbers and math
• Doing maths at a level that is higher than what’s expected for their age level and is self-taught
• Thinking in numbers and attempting to quantify everything

And I fully believe that that is him. If anyone has any experience of hypernumeracy then please get in touch. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. And failing that if anyone can give me any maths tutoring then please do…my mind is full of maths questions!!

So where do we go from here if he is hypernumeric……well I guess for now I will have to keep my brain in gear and shipshape for any questions that I am ask. And questions will be asked…….you can count on that!!!