Talking Math Over Piggy Banks

Six year old Lil’ Dardy accompanied me on a bank errand and she asked the clerk for a new piggy bank – her third now. Two of them are actual pigs while one is a sheep. She decided to name the pigs Pig and Peg. Pig gets dollar bills and change while Peg and Sheepy both get only coins. We emptied all of her money out and sorted for awhile. She has accumulated tons of coins, she has a great eye for coins on the floor. After we filled Pig with all of the bills, we started filling all of them with coins. Because I have a touch of OCD about this sort of thing, I started by picking up three pennies at a time and giving each container a coin. Then I moved on to nickels, etc. Lil’ Dardy mentioned that she, too, was going around the circle giving each one a coin but I noticed that she was not giving each one the same coin. So, I thought this would be a good opportunity to have a lil’ math chat. I asked her if she thought that each container would get the same amount of money and she quickly said no. So far, so good. I next asked her if she thought that they would have the same number of coins. Here, I was already planning her discovered instead of letting her discovery happen by itself. I am a little annoyed with myself for this. But, when I asked if they would have the same number of coins she again said no. I repeated that we were each ‘going around the circle’ putting in coins, but she said that she had just had this thought- she did not start out this way. Have to say I was pretty proud that she point this out in the face of my question. Hooray for Lil’ Dardy on this counting task this morning.