counting

When I was 4 years old my brother told me that when you count backwards, you don't count the number 4. I think I believed him.

Sarah

I thought to count to one thousand you did 1-100, then 100-199, then came 1,000.

Anon!

When I was about 4 I decided that if you were born in a bigger year, that meant you were older. So if I was born in 1965, that meant I was older than someone born in 1964. Because 65 is bigger than 64. Just like being 4 years old was bigger than being 3 years old.

jen

When I was learning to count, I always left out 7. Then, when I finally got used to it being between 6 & 8, I started to leave out 17... I always believed that it couldn't be a proper number because it always had one more syllable than those around it.

Uncle Korky

when i was little i used to believe that the number six was the same as nine, cuz if you turned 6 upsidedown you would get 9, and vice versa. so whenever i would count to ten i would either go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8.... etc
or 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 !

internet freak

I used to believe that numbers had personalities.
1- msart guy who was married to 2
2- nice woman married to 1 who was secreytly in love with8, who was a bad number
3-retarded boy
4-nerdy guy
5-evil but stupid and in love with number six
6- sorta evil but very beautiful
7- evil, in love with six, was very handsome and thats why six liked him
8- clumsy but evil and in love with 2
9- servant of the wise and good 10, but secretly plotting to overthrow him.
10-nice and wise, the best of them all and the most powerful

nicole

I used to believe numbers only lasted to 100. And, I thought, when I was three, the alphabet lasted forever like numbers.

unknown name

I used to believe that eg 1+1=11 and 2+2=22.
Luckily that only lasted until age 2 1/2.

Madi

I thought several was a specific large number because I never learned exactly how many it was and I knew the smaller ones. Once when I was about four years old, I threw one of my toys on the ground and it broke. My mother yelled at me, "That cost several dollars!" So I said, "I can't count that high!"

Colin T

Because I could only count up to 100, I used to believe the biggest number was 100, so therefore big items like cars and houses cost $100.

Anon

Soon after starting school 3 years ago, my friend's little girl came home upset because she couldn't read as well as some of the kids in her class, even though her counting was really good.

My friend comforted her by comparing her to me - saying "Auntie C can read and write, but she can't count to 100 like you can"

Her reading is much better now, but she still believes that I can't count without using my fingers and toes...

Anon

when my little cousin was 4, she was able to count until 9 in english. She said "one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eightnine..." she thought eightnine was a whole number.

ireberry

I can't believe how many other people used to associate personalities with numbers! I thought I was the only one!

When I was little I had colourful fridge magnets in the shape of the numbers. I made up all these stories about them.
1 was red. He was a baddie, though not as bad as 9.
6 was pink and 7 was purple. They were married, or girlfriend and boyfriend or something, and 9 was always trying to kill them for some reason. 1 didn't want to kill them but he didn't like them.
8 was a friend of 7 & 6. He would always be helpful, though without actually doing anything.
I also had magnets in the shapes of plus and minus signs etc. The long division sign was always a cliff that 1 or 9 would push 7 and 6 off.

I also always liked even numbers better than odd numbers, because with even numbers everybody has a friend and with odd numbers someone's always left out.
Also 8 is a better number than 6 because, although they are both even, if you halve 6 you get an odd number and if you halve 8 you get an even number.

Anon

I used to believe that twenty was the largest number in the universe.

Bernardo Fernandez

I used to feel that numbers had certain characteristics. Odd numbers were thin and male, while even numbers were fat and female.

Victoria

A friend once told me at the age of 5 that the biggest number was called 'infinitytrouble' (?). When I told this to my sister (who is ten years older than me), she didn't believe me, and told me that there wasn't a biggest number at all, and I didn't believe her.

Katrina

i used to think eleven was actually 'eleventeen' ... i always wondered why they skipped 'teen' at the end of twelve

Anon

i used to think 20 was the highest number. i would make my mom count to twenty since i actually couldnt, and then say "and thats the highest number!" my parents soon corrected me.

q

Me? I used to NOT beleive.

On my mother's forty-fourth birthday, when I was four, we did the thing where you shout, "ARE YOU ONE! ARE YOU TWO! ARE YOU THREE! . . ." All the way up to forty-four. And that was how I learned to count to forty-four.

Later, when I was counting to four on my own . . . I asked my older sister what number came next. She told me that the same pattern as with the previous numbers continued, and that forty-five came next. It made sense, I'll admit. It was a logical reply. But I didn't trust her, because she was always playing tricks on me.

So for a very long period of time, I refused to beleive that forty-five DID NOT come after forty-four, and anyone who told me otherwise was just trying to trick me.

Kama

i made up personalitys for numbers when i was little.

9 was a sophisticated, classy mom, with a teenage daughter, who was number 6.

number 6 is in love with the 'run of the mill' number 5 (who's mom is number 8, and baby sister is number 3)

number 9 didnt like her daughter (6), dating number 5,because he wasnt classy, but it made number 6 happy, so 9 accepted it.


this is why 6 is my favorite number...

anastacia beeverhousen