15 September 2004
Hold That Thought
Lex was looking forward to his second day of school. More precisely, it was day two of year two of a three-year Montessori class (two of Pre-K and one of Kindergarten). First year Pre-K lets out at 11:30am, but second years get three full days complete with lunch and afternoon activities. Today was the first of the full days, hence the extra excitement.
We were a little early. Our car was the first one parked outside Building B, and drop-off had not yet begun. Lex was singing to himself in the back seat, and I took the opportunity to check for new voicemail. It was then that Lex stopped singing and decided to create a number of diversions.
Or - make that a diversion of numbers.
“Daddy, what do you get if you add a zero and a one?”
Odd question. By now that should be a no-brainer. I reply with a grin. “Hmm. What do you think?”
He paused, eyes making the requisite glance up and to the right, surely suggesting some form of deep thought. (Either that or he just learned the look from his parents. Probably both.) At last Lex triumphantly pronounced: “Ten!”
I was surprised by his response, but didn’t miss a beat. “Hey! I guess you do get ten if you put a zero after a one. How ‘bout that?”
Indeed, that was his plan. Before I could return to the phone, he continued, “… and what if you put TWO zeroes after the one?”
Smiling, I abanoned the voicemail check. “You get …” I prompted him.
“ONE HUNDRED!”
“Whoa! Way to go!” Wow, you play Schoolhouse Rock ad nauseum on the ol’ Empeg and, surprise, the magic is still there - even without the visuals.
He pressed on. “So what do you get if you put THREE zeroes after the one?”
“You get … ?”
“One HUNDRED and … a zero!”
I fashioned a blank stare in his direction and an “Oh boy” in response. Lex found it hilarious.
This discussion continued on up to ten zeroes and back down again. (Four year-olds are really good at long diversion.)
I should have seen this coming. I knew to watch out for sensitive periods, the time when a child’s interest in a particular topic is especially heightened. Could be letters, shapes, numbers, whatever. This time it had to be numbers, right? Sure, we’ve worked with numbers many times before, but something seemed different about his questioning - I sensed it in his voice. Yep, this could be it. I was determined to strike while the proverbial iron was hot.
With that, Lex proceeded to throw me the curveball.
“Daddy?”
“Yes?”
“What do you get if you put … an X next to the number?”
Silence.
Immediately, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Hexadecimal notation, of course! Why, who can forget 0xD200 through 0xD2FF from the Atari POKEY days?
Right. How was I going to address this? Do I even dare? Well, let’s try for fun.
“On the right or on the left side?”
“The left side.”
Great. He actually answered correctly, NOW what? Why couldn’t he pick Z or some other letter anyway? I would have had no problem making up a silly joke, but now the software engineer in me felt obliged to give him the straight dope. Then again, did one of my friends put him up to this? If I even attempt to explain base 16 am I going to totally mess with whatever he’s working on in school? Shouldn’t I just leave well enough alone? In an instant I contemplated all the alternatives. As if on cue, Tom Lehrer started playing in my head, running interference.
Can’t … think … straight … must … create … a …
I snap back to reality and table the discussion. “Um, Lex? Hold that tho-“
Instinctively, we turned our heads toward the sound of the rear passenger car door opening.
“Good morning, Lex! Good to see you. Come on in, you’re the first one here!”
“Bye Daddy!” Popping the entire discussion right off the stack, he raced out one door and headed for another.
Thus began Alexander’s first full day of school.
As for my day, I soon realized that Tom Lehrer tune must have been playing on one of those endless loop Audiopak carts from college radio days. Couldn’t shake the thing for the entire day. I finally happened upon a rather effective Mike Keneally antidote which obliterated the tape loop by about 10pm.
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Posted by joe at 10:01 PM
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