Maybe my 8th grade math teacher was right, and math IS life after all

One of the few things that Paul actually remembers from his childhood is the nightly math problems his father used to toss out at the dinner table. It's one of those traditions I think he'd probably like to share with our kids (a far healthier one than the restricted TV tradition I've saddled them with, no doubt), but we so rarely eat as a family that it's never really happened. Julia has a real affinity for math, though, and considers addition and subtraction grand entertainment (clearly, our genetic connection stopped at the physical resemblance). So Paul tries to squeeze in a facsimile of his father's old game whenever he can -- in the car, during mundane activities, etc. And in the process, we've learn some fascinating things about the way our daughter's mind works.

"Julia," he said the other day as she was watching him get ready for work, "if I had 1 and I took away 3, how many would I have?" It was a trick question for a kid far too young to grasp the concept of negative numbers, but Julia didn't miss a beat. "I'd need 2 more to answer that," she promptly replied.

Turning the negative into a positive. What a nice idea. Now if only she could learn to apply the same concept to bedtime and sharing with her younger brother...