Numbers

Do any of you guys watch the show Numbers?  Sometimes I wonder if that show would creep me out if Silas wasn’t verbal.  I used to walk into his room and I’d see his chalkboard which was covered with numbers upon numbers upon numbers.  It’s was like the twilight zone.  DOUBLE RAINBOWS!! WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN!?

He’s gone through many obsessions but he often comes back to numbers.  Now it’s math, of course.  What 6-year-old doesn’t love learning their times tables….all. day. long. ?

It’s all he’s been up to lately.  Math.  Math math math.  Sometimes I’m a tad embarrassed, I am the anti academic person.  I don’t agree with Leapfrog / baby Einstein esq crap.  You want a smart kid?  LET THEM PLAY!!!!  Studies have shown it’s actually harmful to force academics upon your children at a young age.  There’s so many things that are important about play, more than your mind could understand.  They’re learning so much.  They’re better off playing with a stick than they are being in one of those early reading programs they have at preschool.  THEY WILL READ, eventually.

So then, like yesterday when we were in Dollarama and instead of any toy, my son picked out this:

So then strange old men in the store start quizzing him and of course he knows the answers because it’s all he can think about these days.  I feel like I look like a pushy academic mom…I guess I shouldn’t care what people think so much.

It was easy when his obsession was spelling, I can spell…boy can I spell.  He made me spell everything that came out of my mouth and I can do that.  When his obsession was drumming, I could go along with that too.  I was a percussionist in band, I can keep a beat.  When his obsession was Movie Cars, I could buy him cars and help him line them up….but now TIMES TABLES?  I never ever ever ever memorized them all.  I never finished those math drill pages in grade 4.  Sorry Silas, I’m having a hard time engaging you on this one…a really hard time.

But I know that adults with autism say that they often felt alone because their family never engaged them in their obsessions.  I really try to.  I want him to think his obsessions are important so I go along with it.  I think I need to go back to grade 4 math and start all over.  He’s asking me division questions and after that, whoa…don’s ask me a math question…please.

What I can do is buy him ironic t-shirts, well to me they are.

I really don’t know what my point is….I’m very distracted and verbally vomiting all over your screen.  I apologize.  Have a good weekend!

What’s your child’s obsession?  Silas flutters to all kinds.  Here’s a list of what he’s been obsessed with *mostly* in order.  #1 began at about 2 weeks old

1. Spinning Objects
2. Putting his face to the floor and crawling and watching the floor go by…it had to be done on ever new surface – started 6 months old
3. looking at books all day
4. lining up things
5. ABC’s and counting
6. shapes
7. spelling and letters (still loved numbers)
8. public bathrooms
9. drumming
10. provinces -> states -> countries of the world -> flags of the world (he knows it all now)
11. Movie Cars (so expensive and annoying)
12. back to countries
13. back to numbers – multiplication