DH wants to teach our DS set theory. DS is 17mo.

[Herrena]

His exact message:
"Should I teach DS about sets or jump straight in to counting?"

Personally I don't understand why DH isn't happy with teaching DS to count like everybody else, but then my grasp of mathematics is - as he cheerfully informs me - minimal.

I think he's mad. He thinks I don't understand.

Any advice out there?!

What is set theory?

Basic set theory is very simple, and fundamental to the understanding of many areas of mathematics, great thing to start off with.

Do you think a 17 month old would have the language skills and logical thought processes to be able to cope though? I think he may even have trouble drawing a Venn diagram.

I would just agree and just let your DH get on with it. Then you can either stand back and be impressed or amused - whichever is most appropriate.

piprabbit has got it spot on imo

that is what I tried to do with my DS

CecilyP - I probably will I'm not averse to it, it's just that since I am not a mathematician myself I find the whole idea a bit incomprehensible!

Personally I favour geometry. :) Parallel lines and perpendicular lines and shapes are everywhere.

Children can pick up all sorts of "complicated" things - let your DH have a go, so long as he's a reasonably patient person who isn't going to lose his temper if DS doesn't "get it".

Herrena; if your DH is able to present it in a way that is understandable to a baby, you might as well sit in as it shouldn't be incomprehensible to an adult.

Wonder what your DH would have made of DS1? His version of counting, say, five cars in a row was to point at each one and say, very earnestly 'One... one... one... one... one'.

Which was true enough. Each car was indeed one car. Had me a bit stumped for a while!

Alternatively you could teach him practical calculus and parabolic trajectories (throwing his toys across the room).

Isn't set theory at toddler level just 'put all the red things together'?

Not that tricky- probably easier than 1-1 correspondance (sp?).

He's setting his sights a bit low. I expect him to be going for solving Navier-Stokes wave equations.

Or maybe if he starts early enough they can work out the reasoning behind Fermat's last theorem.

They can be very interesting to discuss with a child whose speech is at the "daddy, boo" stage

We started DD on sets/numbers at about that age, mostly just playing and repetition but it did work. ELC have some coloured blocks with numbers/letters on them that are well used, when she stopped gnawing everything in sight we got a few pairs/matching games too which are very popular.

Actually I think your DH has a point - counting and understanding sets can really go hand in hand and Venn diagrams are a good place to start, They can also be explained in terms a very young child will understand. As long as your DS is enjoying it, it doesn't really matter that he is getting a head start on mathematical concepts and theory - it just has to be fun.

DH is pretty patient, so I don't think he will get frustrated. I don't see any reason not to give it a go; I will be doing all the generic '5 little ducks' songs and stuff like that, so I assume he'll at least pick up the names of the numbers from me.

RugBugs - nice to hear that someone else has already tried this!

I will keep you all posted - if DH is successful with DS1 there will undoubtedly be some crowing

i think that you are all being 'up yourselves'

You all talk about sharing it with a child 17 months old, but none of you will expalin it to me!

I'm totally not an expert, but basically set theory is about how things can be grouped together. The example of that most people have seen at school would be Venn diagrams - like this - but there's a lot of complicated maths involved too in how you can study all the possibilities.

The participants in this discussion are divided into two sets: those who know what set theory is, and those who do not.

Does that help? (it also provides a rigourous enough to be getting on with definition of "two" "one" and "addition")

nowt wrong with learning about sets. DH can call it what he likes, the skill is fundamentally useful and a mathematical skill that your/ any DC will use for life.

Your DC won;t pick it all up at once and may frustrate your DH by going freestyle on him. The set "things I can chew" is possibly not what your DH has in mind when he starts splitting toys into sets.

Fuck counting, we're sorting tomorrow! will not be beaten in pfbness

It's "Set theory", yeah? so I can boast

He's 19mo already, how did we get so behind?

Set theory is definitey the way to go.

I used to get DSs to sort the socks out for me - I thought it was slave labour, now I realise I was teaching set theory! Surely parents have been doing this for ever, don't all children have to put the smarties in sets before they're allowed to eat them?

In fact, casting my mind back to the learning type books we got DD1 when she was a toddler, there was a lot of basic set theory in them (in fact it was all pretty much set theory, at a basic level obviously).

See, I love set theory and sorting. Even when he was little DS liked sorting stuff and still does. If DH wants to call it 'set theory for babies' I would suggest that he gets on with it, absolutely no harm done.

DS is a couple of months younger but I'd like to get an early start.

Will a "simple venn diagram" help him work out where his nose is?