Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Is this familiar to you?

Hi everyone.

I posted not so long ago about the trouble I was having with my five year old ds. Well things have really gone down hill from there. We are now on the summer holidays and I am finding it impossible to keep him entertained.

Well today in the car we had the following conversation.

ds, "Is zero a friend or not a friend?

Me, " I don't know what you mean?"

ds, "Well, Eleven isn't a friend, neither are one, three, five seven, nine or thirteen. Two, four, six, ten and twelve are friends. So are minus two, minus four, minus six and so on. So if minus one, three, five and them aren't friends then what is zero?"

Me, "How did you work that one out?"

Ds, "I just see them and know it. If there are two, four or six then that is like two friends and they can share, but if there are one, three or five then that is one spare and they can't share. So is two a friend or not?"

Me, " I have no idea."

What I think he is talking about is odd and even numbers. Is this possible for him to work out by himself? About six months ago he worked out minus numbers. How odd is this or is it normal for a not quite five year old?

I may be way off track, but it did freak me out a bit.

Oh, and does anyone know if zero is a friend(even) or is it not a friend(odd)?

Zero is considered even. Here is a link that will help explain why.

http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/57104.html

That is a great question, BTW!!!

LOL! This sounds like a conversation I would have had with my son when he was 5.

I think he's picked out prime numbers! Smart kid!

Sorry for the briefness of my reply, but I'm being bumped off of my own computer by DS8 who wants to play Lego Star Wars. May the (lego) Force be with you.

It's very, very advanced for a five year old, especially if he figured it out for himself.

He's probably going to be ready for multiplication soon (he's essentially thinking about how division of 2 works). That might be something where a little bit of guidance would really help him out.

Good luck. You've got a smart one there.

JB

Yep even and odd numbers and what a cool way to think of it! All on his own! Triple WOW!

I have a great book for him "The Cat in Numberland."

I don't recall when my boys figured out odd or even or if they figured it out on their own or was taught. They both were adding and subtracting negative numbers at 4-5yrs old. The older one figured it by studying a thermometer and noticing numbers less than zero. the younger one....I think he heard his brother and figured it out for himself. I don't know how common it is.

wowzie I remember that feeling of "oh my gosh did he really just do that?." Yep, that's pretty special and I really love his descriptions.

Our "familiar" ds is now 8 and has continued his math exploration pretty much on his own.

There are some great resources out there- a fun book is "Can You Count to a Google?"

take a deep breath, go with the "flow" and enjoy!

A thread that you might find helpful for a while ago. There are a lot of good math resources out there.

*** Thread no longer available ***

JB