Hmm. I'm trying to think of a situation in which a child would have one set of rules for one thing and another for something else.

Like maybe bedtime during school days, and bedtime on weekends.

What time is your bedtime? It depends on whether we are using weekday rules or weekend rules. The set of numbers we're using are like weekday rules, stricter so that we can play with the weekend numbers.

Or a doll with bendy knees versus one without. They're both dolls, but you can't bend the knees of one. You can break them, but you can't make them be bendy. And besides, the doll doesn't owe you that much money.

NYC Subway Google map!

Children just learning about addition and subtraction are often told that they can't subtract a larger number from a smaller one. Why? Sometimes these children have already learned outside of class about negative numbers. How would you explain, as simply as possible, to these children why their teacher is apparently lying to them?

Isn't that why we have whachamacallit...uh, natural (counting) numbers? It's an opportunity to discuss sets!

reminds self to find a copy of Lies My Teacher Taught Me for Emily....

HOCKEY!

Don't count your poutine before it's hatched - there's still a week in which both the Board of Governors and the membership of the NHLPA have to vote the agreement through, and Jeremy Roenick is still publicly griping that the players (namely, him) aren't getting what they deserve with this deal.

NYC Subway Google map!

I just saw that. SO COOL. Although it does nothing to clear up for me which R stop is closer to my house. I will continue to base my choice on time of day and where I'm going, I guess.

the whole idea of "different number systems" aside from just defining them.

You mean, like, base-8 and stuff? I wish, when I was a kid learning that stuff, that somebody had pointed out that telling time is a "different number system" and I do that with ease. Time is all base-12 and base-60, which can be frustrating, when you are adding up the seconds on several different video clips, and can only find a calculator that works in base-10.

This also gives you the opportunity to introduce the word "eleventy", which every child should learn.

Don't count your poutine before it's hatched

Dude, it's not like I'd have time to watch it anyway, these days.

Today's Get Fuzzy seems appropriate for natter: [link]

I like the way seto f numbers seem to expand to the next level whenever yo run into something yo can't do. You start with the Natural Numbers and you can count things. But whatabout when all the things are hpne? So you add zero and have Whole Numbers. But what about when you only have part of something? Then you need Rational Numbers. And how about when you owe something to someone else -> Negative Numbers. Turns out the square root of two is troublesome so we need Irrational Numbers. And pi is even more troublesome so we need Transcendental Numbers. And even if you can undertsand the concept of Real Numbers, that's still not enough because gosh darn it we want to be able to take the square root of negative numbers we have to have Complex Numbers. Are the numbers we learned in kindergarten Complex Numbers?