Angie and Alphie did an “Ages and Stages” questionnaire today. Alphie was attentive, responsive and brilliant.
In fact, Alphie was so excited to complete all the tasks that, when she was done, she told her mom “I want to do some more homework!” We have doubts as to whether we will ever hear that phrase uttered again.
Anyway, Angie decided to do a little math with Alphie, since it is something we have not emphasized and is a skill she might someday need.
To coach Alphie a little bit, Angie used small tokens from a board game to illustrate the numbers. She started easy, asking “If I have one and I add another one, how many do you have?”
Alphie responded “Two” in a distracted way, without glancing at the visual aids, as she moved dragged a chair over to sit next to her mother.
Angie, sensing that she was undershooting, asked “If you have three and I add another three how many do you have?”
Alphie looked at the little tokens and counted “four, five, six!” as she balanced on her chair next to her mother.
Angie decided to try subtraction. “If I have five and I take two away, how many to you have left.”
Alphie looked at the remaining pieces. She looked at her mother. She carefully counted “One, two, three.”
And then she looked back at her mother and said in an earnest and forthright voice “Mom, we don’t take things away from our friends, though. It is not nice.”
Math and morality are sometimes hard to reconcile. And subtraction is rarely fair.
