Nerds rules in mathematics
11Saturday 04 April, 2015 by Uncle Spike
As much as I consider myself a learned chap of the world; having done and seen more than I care to admit over a few ‘interesting’ decades, the miracle of human child development continues to astonish and fascinate me.
Some seven and a bit years ago, a small alien being had it’s foto taken.
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It then grew, started to walk, wear silly hats, and then by 18 months was behind the wheel. I guess when that number is expressed in years, I’ll be kissing goodbye to the keys too!
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The small person started to count anything that moved, from cars, to chickens, eggs, spiders, citrus fruit trees, and apparently even zombies. The craving for numbers led him to see math as a test of his grip on life, and started to ‘enjoy’ challenges like this for fun…
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The nerd factor hasn’t worn off. Ok, so the pace of achievement has lessened somewhat, now that the formal learning of three languages, music, drama, life sciences and other exciting stuff is slowly filling the space between his ears.
But every so often, his Mathematical nerdiness surfaces, like this; his school semester project on ‘Patterns’. Most normal kids made patterns with beans, buttons etc, hmm….
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But that was formal stuff, fulfilling requirements for school set project tasks. However, confirmed nerdiness is probably to be based on what they do for fun, on their own. The other night I came in from lugging coal sacks to the boiler, and found him scribbling away on his whiteboard.
“I’m doing science maths daddy, look!”
It wasn’t rocket science, but I love the way his mind works; using simple alphabetical representation of numbers (a=1,b=2) in his own strangely concocted equations. His drive apparently is to see if his best mate at school can crack the code. He’s also seven. I so pity their poor, brave teacher!
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Uncle Spike's Adventures 
I enjoyed this. You do have a small Einstein budding forth. A gift to the world.
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
https://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com/sherlock-boomer
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Perhaps – time will tell. What I loved at age 7 soon changed…
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How fabulous, and maybe rare ! An early interest in math, especially as “fun” is very telling ! The world needs more of these skills. ☺ Van
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Yes, and his times tables are already beyond mine – I was useless (lazy).
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I’m impressed! You have a short genius living in your house 🙂
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I know, it’s all a bit scary…
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Wow! That’s awesome. He’s lucky to have found what he loves to learn so young. I’m still looking.
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Me too mate! He’ll probably become a boat builder or a florist though in eventuality 🙂
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May he always retain that feeling of wonder with numbers.
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You are right about it being the stuff they do for fun that is really important and shows their true interests. This is really impressive. I think his teachers are going to be hard pushed to keep him challenged, though there is plenty of really interesting maths stuff out there and I am sure he will find it on his own. I predict he is going to be a theoretical physicist and discover some new particle that will finally make sense of the laws of physics! My son’s love of music was apparent at the age of two when he sat through a Scottish music concert spellbound. Of course the other option was going to bed!
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Agree. Homework or instructed success is one thing, but to see him playing in his own room with his whiteboard, and often making calculations for fun is a telling sign of his ‘interests’. Time will tell…
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