Two Children Tell: ‘I Weigh Infinity Metres’

Virginia Lowe continues her series examining children’s relationship with language, drawing on recorded observations of her own children’s developing use and understanding of words. Here she examines children’s early understanding of numbers.

We had a plethora of counting books when the children were young. All advantageous in their way, featuring things to count of course, often in patterns making 3 + 1 = 4 or similar, but also the numerals. They were the first reading for both, because they could recognise ‘nine snakes’ or whatever, from seeing the number written – then go on and count them.

Rebecca was eighteen months (1y6m) when her visiting grandma taught her to answer ‘What comes after one?’ with a joyous ‘Two!’ By 1y10m she could recite up to ten, almost always accurately. When he was the same age, Nick would chase her, and chime in after her ‘I won’ with ‘Me too’ seeing them as ‘one’ and ‘two’ presumably, because he had also learnt this sequence.

Nicholas, being three years younger, had more exposure to numbers. Rebecca would show him counting books and others, and count objects for him. However he was slower to grasp the concept, using colour and number as adjectives indiscriminately. He was especially aware of Minis, the car owned by his adored grandma (Mamma), and would often tell me, while out driving ‘boo Mamma car, yewow Mamma car’ when he spotted one or two together at 1y9m, or would keep up chanting long after we were past – ‘four Mamma car, six Mamma car, nine Mamma car, six Mamma car …’

One of the most successful of our counting books was 1 2 3 To the Zoo. As well as identifying the animals they could read the numbers, count the animals, find the mouse hidden on each opening (one of their favourite activities), and trace the filling-up train along the bottom of each opening, and, on the wonderful fold-out page at the end, find them all in the zoo. (There are three readings of it on You Tube if you are interested.) One of Nick’s first uses of the plural form was ‘two popos’ to the two hippopotamuses at 2y0m. Rebecca could say ‘two dogs’ correctly (down the street) at 1y8m. Her older comment to the engine page with no carriages, was ‘That must be nought,’ (5y4m) and was amused by V: Well it’s nought animals anyway.

Nick at 4y4m was telling me about a ‘Scarry’ they had at kinder, Busiest People Ever:

N: A bus comes with hundreds and hundreds of things – not just a double decker with hundreds more than two [decks] – or six or five – and hundreds and hundreds of children. You couldn’t count them cos if you did they might go on forever.  I only counted six. Then the next day I counted six, ten – thirty I counted.

The idea of infinity fascinated them both. At one of the openings in The Elephant and the Bad Baby, to an angry woman –

Nick (3y6m):  The grocer sells bacon, and it cost infinity dollars, so she’s mad.

They had a great-grandmother who was about to turn one hundred. At 3y7m Nick announced ‘Granny-Granny will never die if she lives to infinity’ and at 3y11m wanted to know ‘is infinity farer than eternity?’ (A tricky one to answer – without reference to religion, either). Rebecca mentioned ‘infinity infinities’ and Nick objected (3y7m) ‘But infinity means for ever!’ He understood age. The Milne poem The End inspired him to exclaim after one of the readings, (he had heard it many times by 3y11m): ‘I think I’ll be six now forever and ever’ N: But he really will have more numbers, won’t he?

Books don’t have to be counting books to be useful. Nick (3y7m) has been looking at How Your Body Works by himself on the floor.

N: Would you read the body book?

V: I’ll read a few pages.

N: Ten, read ten pages.

After about three random openings I stopped and announced

V: Rest time

N: But I wanted ten. V [points to page number]: ‘10’.

N (most amused): You tricked me!

He was happy to go to bed on that note.

Measurement of all kinds takes a long while to learn. Rebecca at 4y4m was pulling up clumps of grass. She played at being a scales, measuring two little clumps in one hand, and a big clump in the other.

R: Look at this great big turnip, Mum. It’s so heavy and it was hard to pull up. We’ll have turnip for supper.  The game was inspired by The Great Big Enormous Turnip.

N (3y7m): My car goes so fast – it goes ten metres – infinity metres, that’s how fast! And a month later – N: I’m stronger than a popos cos a popos weighs one and fourteen metres, and I weigh infinity metres.

There was counting backwards in Meg on the Moon. On the page with ‘10’ on,

N (2y10m):  I can’t say that. I need somebody to help – a big person.

R:   I’ll help you.  It starts here [counts ten down to zero]

N joins in with a shouted ‘lift-off’.

At 3y3m he showed he knew each, pointing to the numerals as he read them.

Dr Virginia Lowe lives in Melbourne, Australia. She is the proprietor of Create a Kids’ Book, a manuscript assessment agency, which also runs regular workshops, interactive writing e-courses, mentorships and produces a regular free e-bulletin on writing for children and children’s literature generally. Her book, Stories, Pictures and Reality: Two Children Tell (2007) is published by Routledge (978-0-4153-9724-7, £29.99 pbk).

Books mentioned:

123 to the Zoo, Eric Carle

Busiest People Ever, Richard Scarry

The Elephant and the Bad Baby, Elfrida Vipont and Raymond Briggs

The Great Big Enormous Turnip, Alexei Tolstoy and Helen Oxenbury

How Your Body Works, Nina Schneider

Meg on the Moon, Helen Nicholl and Jan Pienkowski

Now We are Six, A.A. Milne