Math wizzes

Ok, prepare yourself for some long overdue bragging about my boys. Here goes: They are smart. No, I mean really smart. Ok, Torii is too smart for his own good, but that's another blog post. Now, I know most parents say their kids are smart, but I'm not lying. My kids are smart. I'm especially talking about the boys and math. Over the summer I have learned that my boys not only love math, but they are good at it. I shouldn't be surprised since both of their parents were good at math so I guess it's in their genes.

Before vacation I bought the boys some really great workbooks at Dollar Tree. (I love that store). I brought the books along for something to do in the car, but didn't have real high hopes that the boys would like them. They both loved the math workbooks. Rion was really interested in the multiplication section of his book. I have since found another workbook that is completely multiplication. He knows the easy stuff like multiplying by 1's and some of the 2's. He wanted to do the harder problems, but I told him to work his way to the back of the book. No, he really wanted to do the x10 problems. Fine, those are easy I told him, but instead of letting him in on the hint of just adding a zero to the number he is multiplying by 10 I told him how to figure out the answer by making groups of ten. By the time he got to x3 he had it figured out by himself and he finished the page on his own. He'll be in second grade this fall and I'm not sure if that's when they start multiplication, but either way, he's ahead of the class already.

Torii will be in first grade and his math skills impress me too. They started adding in kindergarten, but it was pretty basic 2+2 math. Torii is adding and subtracting much bigger numbers. I think Torii has taken to math so well because of his love of board games. His favorite game is Monopoly. Not Jr. Monopoly, he abandoned that long ago. He plays standard Monopoly. The first time he landed on Luxury Tax I thought I would have to help him get $75, but he looked at his money and handed me a fifty, twenty and a five. He can get correct change for any property he lands on. It's just when we get deep into the game and we are exchanging large amounts of money for landing on hotels is when he needs help. But really, he's a five year old. The box says ages 8-adult. I think he's doing quite well on Monopoly.

Torii and I also play another math related game we made up. When we are done shopping at Wal-mart I ask him to estimate how many items I bought. We each make a guess and see who is closest. Then we look at the total on the receipt for the answer. The other day he guessed 29 items, but we had 25. Without even thinking he said he was 4 off. "But was that with the video game we purchased earlier in electronics", he asked me. "No it wasn't," I told him. Well he was counting the video game so without thinking again he had to let me know he really was only 3 off. I don't know, that just seems like it would be difficult for a five-year-old to figure out and to figure out so quickly.

Ok, this bragging session has ended. But really, they are smart.