Maths

A sight you may see often if you live nearby---boys pushing down a sprinkler that got stuck in the "up" position.  (This particular sprinkler is a good one because it nearly always gets stuck.)  We usually have to stop the car when we are going somewhere, to let the boys get out and take care of the sprinkler.

Abe and Seb decided the other day that they were going to teach math to Ky.  ("I want him to know how  to do math before he even starts school, just like you knew how to read before you started school," Abe told me.)  Ky was obliging, as usual.  The teaching consisted of Seb and Abe peppering Ky with math questions all day, many of them "story problems."  Here are some things I overheard:

"If you have one mommy, and she goes to the church for Young Women, how many mommies do you have left?" 

"If you have three windmills in your backyard, and one falls down and cuts your head off, how many windmills are left?" 

"If you have five babies, and they are all crying, and two more babies come and start crying TOO, how many babies do you have total?"
"All those babies probably wouldn't be crying at the same time."
"Fine, then two of them can be laughing.  How many total?
"I don't know."
"Five plus two, Malachi.  Look at my fingers."
"Oh. Seven." 

"What if you have a birdie, and another birdie in a tree, and another birdie on the grass?"
"Like the birdie that I petted?"
"Yes, but concentrate, Malachi!"

Under such tutelage we'll probably have a boy genius on our hands soon.  I'll keep you posted.