counting

I remember in gr.1 learning to make the number 8 as 2 circles. Then in gr.2, my new teacher said to make it like a figure 8.
For the longest time I thought my 2 teachers would get in a fight about which way to make an 8.

Anon

i believed that every colour had a number.. i know that this had something to do with spoons we had indifferent colours with small hearts on top in the opposite colour..

the blue spoon with a yellow heart was number 63
the yellow spoon with the blue heart was 36
green with a red heart was 45
red with a green heart 54..

when i think of these numbers i still see the colours

nous

When I was in preschool I thought that the number a hundred preceeded the number one hundred.

Andi

When I was about 3 or 4 I used to count the days of the month as oneth, tooth, third, fourth, fifth...
I'm not sure how I got the third right.

Anon

Im probably not the only one that thought this but when I was like 3-4 ish when I first started getting into learning and such (Like Math) I thought 1+1=11 because two 1's puttogether are 11 (Double one)

Andrew

Around first grade when I was learning arithmetic I began to think of numbers as having these complex personalities and interactions. 2 was the funny one, 3 was kind of stupid, 5 was the wild & cool one, 7 was a stuck-up brat, 8 was shy & quiet, 9 was sophisticated, 1,4 & 6 were all mellow, easy to get along with types. Some numbers got along better than others. 7 was always huting the other number's feelings, especially 6 & 8. I used to feel sorry for 6 & 8 and wish they didn't have to be next to 7 all the time.

Annie

Like Lena, katy, Bewildered (and somewhat like Ericka) I too have always associated digits with colors. 0=white, 1=gray, 2=red, 3=green, 4=yellow, 5=brown, 6=maroon, 7=silver, 8=blue, 9=orange. Letters of the alphabet, too. I recently read about the brain condition synesthesia, in which senses are mixed, and wonder if this is related.

Walter

I always thought that the numbr 100 was the biggest number and that it was the last one. So, when I knew all my numbers up to 100, and then was informed that I was sadly mistaken, I thought I will never memorize all those numbers. It would take years.

Anon

I can remember when I was little, I figured out how to count up to very large numbers for the first time. I was in the yard, and I counted outloud... I counted to fif-dee, then six-dee, then seven-dee, then eight-dee and finally nine-de,e and I kept going... nine-dee seven, nine-dee eight, nine-dee nine and finally --- TEN-dee! Ten-dee one, ten-dee two... until I got to ELEVEN-dee, then TWELVE-dee.

I was so proud, that after I got it down I did it in front of my mother, who then kindly corrected me, and explained that after nine-dee nine came one hundred.

I don't know how old I was, but the memory is as clear as a bell.

Wayne

I used to believe that 7 times 12 was equal to 83 or 84, depending on the math problem.

Eric Swensen

My sister was always playing computer battleships when I was little. I'd learned my numbers and my letters, and I was looking at the screen one day. I soon came to believe that every number had to be partnered with a letter, otherwise it would just be rejected.

Anon

When I was little I used to think that when you counted the numbers went 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10---- then 11-19 was replaced with one-ty like twenty or thirty. It went ten, onety-one, onety-two, onety-three... and so on!

Kratz

I thought 100 was the biggest number, but i saw the numbers 112, 156 in different places (like in magazines and whatnot), but it never registered that they were actual numbers. i thought that they were special and i would never have to use them.

However, when i learned that there _were_ numbers that i could use that were above 100, i would count like this: 1, 2, 3....56, 57.... 98, 99, 100, 101... 108, 109, 200, 201, 202... 208, 209, 300, and on up to 500. I never went past 500.

I could never figure out why I didn't say 112 then... duh!

ElbaliavanU

I also have the habit of associating numbers with colours (see: Katy). 3 is yellow, 4 is orange, 5 is red, 6 is purple, 7 is grey. I'm not sure about the others.

Lena