It Adds Up!

Over supper, Hubby pondered that one of his colleagues had never been to Home Café, one of our very favorite restaurants in town.  Baby A piped up, “I’ve been there a million times!”  “Maybe a million and a half,” Hubby told her, and then followed that he was teasing, as she hadn’t really been alive for a million days.

That immediately prompted the challenge from Hubby, asking the girls to calculate how many days old they are.  I was AMAZED that Baby A persevered until she figured it out!

Hubby gave her some prompts, each of which she answered herself.

There are 365 days in a year, but let’s work with a more round number, 350.  What’s 350 x 7?  My A broke it down into 300 x 7 = 2,100, and 50 x 7 = 350.  So 2,100 + 350 = 2,450.

Hubby then prompted her to add the missing 15 days per year.  What’s 15 x 7?  She almost immediately answered 105.

So 2,450 + 105?  She very quickly answered 2,555.

And your birthday was almost exactly two months ago.  How many days ago was that?  The girls both chimed in with 60 days.

So 2,555 + 60?  And my smart baby girl answered 2,615.

Wow.  Seriously, wow.

I was so amazed how she worked through the problem so methodically.  I told her in all sincerity that there are plenty of adults who wouldn’t have even tried to do that math.  They would have grabbed immediately for their calculators.

I love that we make numbers fun at our house.  And I am so grateful that our girls are {almost} always up for a lively challenge.