We waved goodbye to Alpha, who was heading off to work, then Gamma matter-of-factly explained to me, “You know some numbers are perfect numbers and some numbers aren’t. 4 is a perfect number. So is 2. So are 8 and 6. But 1, and 3, and 5, and 7 aren’t.”
Aha… I asked him what he meant by “perfect,” and he explained that you could double some other number and come up with them. Aha… I explained that those were even numbers, and the “not perfect” numbers were odd. I didn’t get into what perfect numbers really are, as my math memories are somewhat sketchy and mixed up.
But it impressed me greatly to see him stumble across this on his own. No pushing from me, no contrived games to make him “get it.” He’s gone around for the last couple days, labeling every number he comes to as either odd or even. Playing games in which, whatever he does, he must do it an even number of steps. Counting the bites in his lunch to assure he takes an even number of bites. This reminded me of one of Rollfe Schmidt’s posts, and it was very gratifying to see happen in my own child.
I’ve read somewhere that you will see it when you believe it. I’m starting to see the truth of that statement.
