Ikea, Counting by 10's, Repetition

We went to Ikea the other night to find some storage solutions. It is a sad fact that the same concept that make apartments attractive to builders – maximizing space to house more people in less space – also applies to living within them as well. Living in an apartment requires storing and making accessible more items in less space.

Added to that the fear of losing an expensive deposit, limits the ability to attach shelves or other storage devices to the walls so everything must be freestanding, non-permanent, ready to move at the appropriate time. It all seems temporary, transient and uninviting. That makes finding solutions that look nice challenging. But we did it. And it will even look good in our next living space – wherever that is.

For the past week my wife has had her little buddy back with her. He practically grew up in my wife's care – from the time he was only 18 months old until now six years old. They are best friends. It's always fun to have him around. He has a little issue with volume control – he practically shouts as he speaks. Like most kids his age he loves coins.

In the van we borrowed from our church there is a cup holder filled to the brim with coins. He was ecstatic when my wife suggested that he count them. As it turned out there were over four hundred pennies in the pile. He began to count them singly, but he would loose count at about eighty. He would then start over. I could have heard the entire exercise from the next apartment.

To help him out my wife suggested he put the pennies in piles of ten and then add up the total. From my perspective, it only meant starting all over again, but we set him up on a flat surface to start the new count. I have never been so tired of hearing “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. One, two, three...” Remember, there were four hundred pennies.

Forty times I endured the sequence. It was only then that we discovered that the piles had not been properly separated so they slid back together and had to be counted again. I was about to scream! So to keep the peace, I gave him a baggie to separate every one hundred pennies. When it was finally over he felt such a sense of accomplishment. I felt drained. My wife enjoyed the entire episode.

If repetition is the key to learning, it was an incredible learning experience.