Counting by X

Nicole writes in:

"A story from today. Gamble is still so amazing!

"I wanted to share with you another incredible story about Gamble, from just this morning. You see, we like to play educational games that we put to music or fun. This particular scenario started with Gamble giving me "5" and counting by 5's to 100, something that he has been doing for a couple of years now.

"At the age of 2, he figured out the pattern of how to count by 10's to 100, so this wasn't unusual.

"I decided though, to change it up a bit. I asked Gamble to pick a number between 1 and 10. He picked the number 4.

"I told him that we would then count by 4's to 100. He looked at me quizzically, but I had him hit my hand with every number while he listened to me do it first. After I did it, I asked him to do it too. Another funny face, but then he was off and counting by 4's.

"I have to tell you, he did it. All the way to 100, with minimal intervention from me. I then asked him to pick another number. He picked 2's, then 20's. He did both of these without me even doing it for him first.

"I also wanted to share with you another game that we did on the way to school. I, for kicks, wanted to see if he could add more than 2 numbers together. I asked him what 3 plus 3 plus 3 was?

"He immediately responded with 9. 'Wow!' I thought. I went through a couple more numbers to verify that he understood the concept.

"He did.

"Then, I explained that 3 times 3 was the same thing as 3 plus 3 plus 3. After that, I began asking what 2 times 3, 10 times 3, etc. were and sure enough, he came up with the number. All of this was done in the car and without help.

"From there, I started talking about fractions again. If I have 4 pieces in a puzzle and I take two away, what do I have? He would respond with 2/4 and so on."

I, for one, am an amazed Daddie.