Sunday, February 24, 2013

Insect Algebra

My boy, Caleb, is a five year old entomolog-... an etymol-... enty-... he's a bug expert.

Recently (in this post right here), I told you about his observation on bees. Here's a chat we had not long ago showing more of his knowledge of insects, and also of math:

Caleb: Dad, what's four plus four?

Me: Eight.

Caleb: What's a hundred plus a hundred?

Me: Two hundred.

Caleb: O-Kaaay. How about... a bug plus a bug?

Me: Hmmm. Two bugs?

Caleb: Nope!

Me: Alright, Mr. Smarty Pants. What is a bug plus a bug?

Caleb: A double bug.

He really got me with that one. I should have thought through it more carefully before giving my answer. And this is one more piece of proof (in Caleb's mind, at least) that I'm not as smart as I think I am, and he's a genius on all kinds of stuff.

...


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4 comments:

  1. It amazes me the way kids think. My girls are working on perfecting the "witty comeback" and the "snappy one-liners."

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    1. Oh, I hear ya, Heather. We have three girls here who carefully study those arts.

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  2. Please tell me it was a double bug that was 50 feet tall and could shoot lasers out of its eyes!
    What? It could happen...

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    1. No, Guap. We were only doing addition. The gigantic mutant nuclear-powered double bug from outer space is what you get when you multiply a bug times a bug (also called a bug squared).

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