Singapore swedenapore

We walk through Ikea and see a white wardrobe with "$875" written on it in very big black letters.
Aiden is skeptical: "Who would want such a wardrobe? Those huge numbers make it so ugly!"

Elsa and Aiden have a friend called 'Mark'. They agree that it i an easy, old-fashioned name. Aiden describes it to us: "The name Mark is in the pile of names that you first think of."

Aiden: "In Primary 2, the Chinese teachers are very pacific."

Katelyn knows someone who has diabetes. Aiden wonders: "Are you sure it's not diarrhea?"

I help a lady with a large stroller get onto the bus. She alights at the same stop as me, so I help her off as well, carefully carrying the front of her stroller down.
She is very grateful: "Thanks! It is so much easier with two." I tell her with a serious voice: "Believe me lady, I got two, and it doesn't get any easier."

And, here we are on the bus:

Katelyn's friend attended the Taylor Swift concert in Sydney, "but she could hardly hear her singing, because everyone is singing and screaming along like a crazy karaoke."
Elsa corrects her: "In between songs you can hear her very clearly, because Taylor really knows how to project her voice."
Aiden contributes too: "My friends say she's very sexy."

Numbers and Mathematics

Aiden rides with me on the back of my bicycle to school. He suggests we play "mathematics-time". This means I ask him questions, and he calls the answers from behind my back.
"How much is 1+1?" "2!"
"How much is 2+2?" "4!"
"How much is 3+3?" "6!"
"How much is 4+4?" "8!"
"How much is 5+5?" "10!"
"Then... How much is 6+6?" (short silence) "16!"
"Aw, nice try, but the answer is 12." "Oh, but I was close, right?"

Aiden asks: "What is the government?" Elsa explains: "That, is the person with the most money in all the world."

I clarify a little: "Many governments are quite poor, but the Singapore government is rich, and perhaps the Chinese government too." Aiden concludes: "Then Kong-Kong and Poh-Poh (his grandpa and grandma) is the government, because they speak Chinese."

Aiden and Elsa are playing together. Their game includes score keeping. Elsa shouts: "I have one hundred and thirty two points." Aiden, just as loud: "And I have one hundred and sixty twelve points!"

Petra explained in whatsapp what really happened: Aiden is just very intelligent - he is counting in French!! (72= soixante douze 😎)

That is a photo of Aiden, busy writing out the entire alphabet. Katelyn shares the photo with Petra and 'sMam. Petra keenly observes that Aiden likes the J, it is the biggest of them all! Katelyn notes however, that the J is written in the wrong direction.

But I know better. It is not a J, he wrote a Greek letter there. Earlier that week, I had learned how pi (𝝅 = 3.1415) is wrong, and tau (τ = 2𝝅 = 6.2831) is correct! (If you enjoy math, and you have 15 minutes to spare, then you should really check this out or watch one of the videos: https://tauday.com/)

But anyway, clearly, Aiden does not like J, Petra! He wrote no J, he wrote tau! Yay! My son likes tau! Attaboy!

One more -long- story, again not a kiddo quirk, but further exposing my insanity (if you were not yet convinced):

So, Elsa (7, in primary 1) was talking to us about how some numbers can be divided, but some can't. I figured she was ready. I took a deep breath and I told her about prime numbers.

As we went through a few primes together, she truly understood the concept. For example, she contributed quickly that 2 is the only 'even' prime number, which is really rather insightful. And, her eyes opened wide in disbelief: "Really? 17 can not be divided?" She has not yet learned the multiplication tables, so eventually we stopped sequencing and instead she began playing with a little walk-down-the-staircase spring toy.

Shortly after that, she came up to me and asked: "Prime numbers are interesting, but what can I do with this, like, what is the point?"

And that is -of course- a brilliant strike at the heart of fundamental mathematics, so I quickly jumped to the defense: the product of two primes makes for a great encryption key. She tried to follow, and even asked some questions... But she also kept fiddling with her little plastic spring toy.

Then my fall, I thought: "oh what the hell," and told her about Euclid's proof of how there are infinite prime numbers. Elsa followed my reasoning carefully. I multiplied all the previous primes to the "largest prime" and came up with this humongous number... This ultimate number, which was the product all those primes... And then... If I added 1 to that number, it would leave a remainder of 1 to all its divisors, and had to be a prime number itself (or be dividable by another, new prime). And so, there is no end, we just found a new prime! I was breathing heavily at that point, in full awe of the magnificence of 2500 year old reasoning.

Elsa, all the while fiddling with her spring, looked at me and thoughtfully lied: "It is difficult, but I think I understand it." Then, in a span of five seconds, she bent the spring into a circle, connected it together, put it on top of her head, walked to the mirror and said "I am so pretty like this!"

Poor children, having a dad like that...

Encore: later Elsa showed Katelyn her spring-crown as well. This time she was hugging a notebook in one hand, and raising up the other hand with a pencil in it, and asked: "Who do you think I look like?" (hint: New York)

Elsa en de getallen

Katelyn haalt Elsa op uit school, de bomen aan de straat worden gesnoeid met veel lawaai, vrachtwagen en ketting zaag. Ze zijn er twee dagen mee bezig.
"Mama, look, the men are still cutting the trees!"
"Yes, Elsa, it is a lot of work."
"Oh my goodness... They really don't like those trees!"


Elsa wil graag leren klok lezen, want ze heeft vorige week voor haar derde verjaardag van Oma een leuke klok gekregen die hardop de tijd leest. Ze snapt er niets van.

Getallen tot tien gaan redelijk goed, maar daarna wordt het lastig. En dus is "eleven twenty five" voor Elsa een mond vol moeilijk.

Getallen zijn belangrijk. Ik besloot met kleine stapjes te beginnen. We spelen dus al een paar dagen "which one is the largest" op de fiets...

"Which is bigger Else, five or eight?"
"Five!"
"Hmm... five, six, seven, eight"
"Ah, eight is bigger Papa"
"Which is bigger Elsa, six or five?"
"Six! Six! Six!"
"Well done! Now tough one: which is bigger, ten or seven?
"Seven!"
"Hmmm..."
"Yes papa: ten, eleven, twelve, seven"