that's what he said wednesday :: math

this week's that's what he said wednesday kind of blows my mind a little. i've always known that the little dude has a very analytic type brain. he thrives on studying things and figuring out how they work. he pays attention to the littlest of details. this is very evident in his drawings as well. he'll point out things he's added that even i wouldn't have thought to include.

numbers always seemed to come pretty easy to him as well. last night at the dinner table the hubby asked the little dude what 2+2+2 equals. without hesitation he said, "six". we looked at each other in disbelief. how on earth does he know this? he's in 4 year old kindergarten. they're focusing on counting thing, not math. so i thought i'd trick him up and asked, "so, what's 2+2+2+2"? again, without hesitation he answered, "eight". again, the hubby and i looked at him in disbelief. we asked how if he had learned that math in school and he replied, "i don't need to learn math, i just know it."

fast forward a couple hours. the hubby comes down from reading books and says that he talked to the little dude more about his math skills. he asked him what 2+2+2+2+2 was and, of course, he quickly replied "ten". thinking that maybe he was learning to count by 2's in school, the hubby asked the little dude, "are you learning to count by 2's in school? like 2, 4, 6, 8, 10?" the little dude looked at him with a crooked face and said, "i have no idea what you're talking about".

so, we're baffled. how does a newly five year old learn these things without being taught by us, or at school?