I got out the pony beads and shoe laces the other day for general peace and something to do (And the OC said that beading would help B’s handwriting). M showed me his string, and asked me if I knew his code.
Well, in the Living Math curriculum, we’d read about Quipus, so I tried a few guesses.
NOPE.
Its hard in the photo to see which beads are the translucent ones, but they are the prime numbers, the opaque ones are the ones with more factors. Only we hadn’t talked through why 1 isn’t an official prime (in fact, I forget why 1 isn’t an official prime. I have to look up why multiple addition isn’t a good model for multiplication too, I know it has to do with fractions, but I forget how you are supposed to introduce multiplication. At any rate, it’s too late to do it the right way, M has picked up a working definition from the ambient atmosphere.)
I was impressed that he got as far as 17, he knows more times tables than I thought.