Math with Aliens and Boots

I try to work mathematics literacy into our day. For breakfast, for example, we have often have toast cut into several different varieties of quarters. Most popular are ″finger quarters″ which involve dividing the toast in half vertically and then dividing each half vertically again. ″Square quarters″ and ″triangle quarters″ are also popular. ″Halfs″ and ″eighths″ are less popular, but known options.

Michael was playing with numbers this morning. He was doing a maze where he was supposed to figure out which path had the numbers in order. Patrick found a path with the numbers from 1 to 8 in order and then skipping to 10. So, he introduced Michael to the Barenaked Ladies song "7 8 9." The lyrics are "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10. What about 9? 7 ate 9." Michael knows his numbers well enough to think this is hysterical.

But, my favourite math moment of the day so far was in the car taking Michael, William, and Jocelyn to school. Jocelyn likes to kick her boots off in the car. This morning, we had this conversation.

J: I kick my 2 boots off yesterday.

K: How many boots do you have on if you kick 2 boots off?

M and J: No boots.

W: Only socks.

K: If you kick one boot off, how many boots do you have on?

W, M, and J: One.

K: What if you kick 3 boots off?

J: You can′t kick 3 boots off? *rolls eyes*

W: Only aliens have 3 feet.

J: And aliens have 5 eyes.

Math lesson over.