Minnie’s Musings

She would kill me if she finds out I am posting this… but Whizz Kid has been outed. Hurrah!

No, not that kind of ‘outed’.

Her new work colleagues have discovered that she is really good at Maths. She can do sums in her head at lightning speed. Well perhaps not lighting. But bloody quick.

Which reminds me that she doesn’t do them in her head. She does them in a cloud above her head. Like a cartoon think cloud.

A friend observed this when she was in Year One. Whizz Kid gazes towards the heavens and does the sum as though she is writing on a whiteboard. It’s amazing to watch.

As an advocate of positive attitudes towards Maths I like to celebrate anyone who finds a way to do it. I frequently tell my students that counting on your fingers is fine. Who cares?!

Mini Me used to duck under the dining room table to count on her fingers and then pop back up again to jot down the answer. She eventually progressed to doing the arithmetic in her head and got herself a top grade.

His Nibs was an adherent to the rules of Maths. Well, sort of. His teacher taught him to add using fruit loops. If he added the sum correctly he got to eat them.

Then they started on subtraction.

Having the literal bent that those with autism are known for, he decided that if the Maths needed to work for him it needed adjusting. So he changed all the subtraction signs to addition and ate the fruit loops.

Back to Whizz Kid. She is now cursing that her secret is out. Everyone in the office is now asking her to check their figures. Am very proud.