On Saturday morning I was awakened by Miles who was standing next to my bed, shaking my shoulder. "Dad ... dad ... D-A-D!!!," he exclaimed. "I know what the episode letters mean for the Star Wars movies."
"You what?" I asked.
"I know what i - v means. It means four!"
"You're right," I said.
"And i - i - i means 3!" he said excitedly.
"Yes, sir," I said as I tried to roll over and go back to sleep.
"Dad ... D-A-D!!! Wake up!!! I know 'episode numbers'!" he boasted.
"They are called Roman Numerals," I said, gradually gaining consciousness.
"Roman Numerals? Oh, ya .... I know Roman Numerals!"
"You know some of them," I said. "But you can't know Roman Numerals yet; you're only a First Grader," I purposely taunted him.
At that point he told me that seven, was 'v - i - i', and that eight was 'v - i - i - i' ... and that nine would be 'v - i - i - i - i.'
I hated to do it, but I had to break it to him: "No Miles, nine is actually 'i - x."
"Why?" he said.
Still partially asleep, I replied, "X equals ten, and i equals one. So, with Roman Numerals the way you write nine is to but the 'i' right before the 'x'."
He thought about this for a moment. I thought he would just say "oh, okay." Instead he said,
"I'm going to count all the way to one-hundred using Roman Numerals, and I'm going to write them all down."
And thus began a two-hour exploration into the system of Roman Numerals. To his credit, he got all the way up into the 40s before he started to need some help. I found a reference sheet on the Internet, and he referred to it for help whenever he got stuck. He moved from room to room in the house ... determined to create a 'Roman Numeral Scroll' that he could show his teacher on Monday.
It so happened that yesterday afternoon was the annual "Band Leadership" Holiday Party that we host at our house. A part of that tradition is that each band student brings a gift to exchange. When the guest arrives, we put a sticker on the gift with a number on it, and also put a corresponding piece of paper in a Santa hat with the same number. Then, when it's time to do the gift exchange, the students each draw a number out of the hat ... and that's the gift they get from under the tree.
I had asked Miles if he would like to be the person who put the stickers on the presents as guests arrived (Emery was a 'greeter' and one of her jobs was to help pass out the gifts during the party.) You can see where this is going: Miles decided by noon that he wanted to use Roman Numerals on the stickers.
He did a great job. The most interesting/sad part (for me) was that when the high school students drew their numbers from the Santa hat, some because nervous that they would not be able to decipher their number. Miles, recognizing this, announced each gift in the following way:
"The next present is for number thirteen. That's x - i - i - i."
Miles the first grader, enabling high school students. Fascinating.
