Ramen numbers, and the (possible) non-existance of the U.S. ...

[Aura_Kitten]

(my son is 5, will be 6 this August) ~ tonight, i had explained the concept of roman numerals (v. "regular" numbers) to him after he had asked me about the chapter headings in Charlott's Web (which are all roman numerals - he was on chapter 4 at the time but couldn't figure out what it was).... and so after that he *looked* like he really understood, and, nodding, walked back into his room and said,

"I understand now! They're not normal alphabets, they're RAMEN numbers."

(hehehe!)

and then after we had assembled the map puzzle of the United States, he stopped me mid-sentence to ask,

"Mommy, how do we know the United States really exists? I mean, this is just a BOARD. It's not REAL..."

... when i finally stopped laughing, i showed him the satellite view of the United States in Google Earth, and we had a very (VERY) lengthy talk about that LOL.

[True Blue]

Thanks for the laugh!!!!!

[twilight girl]

I LOVE your sig line

[LynnS6]

Great story!

We've had issues with maps/states/planets etc. About a year ago, we were looking at a map of the US (gotta love those placemats!) and talking about where various relatives live. Most of them live out of state a LONG ways a way, but I have one sister relatively close. Our son asked "so mom, what planet does Aunt M. live on?" I laughed so hard I had tears, because Aunt M. is DEFINITELY the spacy one in our family.

And then question for you klothos: Would you mind if I used your Ramen numbers as example in my teaching? I teach about language acquisition and I this is a great example of something older kids (3+) do a lot with word learning. (We watched "Dora the Exploder" at our house for quite some time!)

[Aura_Kitten]

Dora the Exploder (would that be Demolitions Dora? )

sure, it's fine if you use it as an example.

the issues with vocabulary and the confusion among more abstract words in the younger group is one of the reasons that i have held off on teaching him the Pledge of Allegiance -- i want him to be able to really *understand* what the words mean, not just recite something (something that he will likely not recite well anyway, kwim?)...