Following The Numbers

Early to bed, early to rise makes a young mother and daughter healthy, wealthy, and wise!

Valentine and Rosie wake every Saturday morning eager to partake in the weekend bonding rituals. For the last five years of Rosie's life, her mommy finishes their errands by visiting their local library. Here a proud Mother watches as her pre-school daughter searches for newer and more exciting reading material printed for children double her age.

The days of reading about Pooh Bear and Dr. Suess are long past for Rosie. At the age of just two, this child quickly mastered the art of reading, and by age four, she has moved on to books teaching the basics of math! Valentine sees the direction her baby girl leads and feels the struggle of keeping her sponge-like brain hydrated with expansive knowledge. Valentine knew the high cost of any gifted learning program was out of reach without ever making a physical phone call.

Sometimes Rosie forgets about the library books and joins in with other children her age, playing hide and seek under the tall stacks of shelves donning the grand city library. Without a doubt, none of Rosie's small friends knew the library had a math section with plenty of space for hiding. Rosie loved crawling under the shelves waiting for anyone to find her but was always left disappointed, never being discovered. Yet, Rosie never gave up on the game. This particular day was no different. The children gathered, and the hiding game began. Instantly, Rosie ran left and right, searching for the best hiding spot.

Valentine smiled, seeing her daughter take a quick left turn toward the math books, and from her chair, she saw her baby roll on the floor and get tucked out of view.

To any child, minutes laying quietly waiting to be found can seem like hours. Although patient, Rosie got bored and decided to lay on her back for a more comfortable wait. Before her very eyes did appear, a small back notebook lay taped to the shelf bottom. She removed the tape and placed the little black book in her jacket pocket just as she heard her mommy call her name, saying, "it was time to go home."

Later that night, Valentine tucked Rosie into bed and went to clean the mudroom. When she picked up their jackets, the little black notebook fell from Rosie's pocket. Valentine picked it up and quickly scanned the seemingly empty pages. Seeing nothing, she tossed it onto the shoetree stand.

Monday morning, both walked into the mudroom and prepare for their typical departure when Rosie's eyes spied the little back notebook. Quickly, she grabs it, saying, "Mommy, Mommy, I forgot about this. I found it while hiding in the library. I need to take this with me to daycare." Valentine tucked the notebook into Rosie's backpack and said. "You will find it in here when you want it." Then the two of them went on their way.

The minute Rosie arrived at daycare, she searched her backpack and told her caregivers she had a new notebook and needed to do some exploring. Quietly, Rosie sat at her table and began to turn the pages seeing it empty. Until her wondering eyes spotted a number 1 handwritten at the very bottom left corner of the back of the first page. On the backside of the seventh page, she saw a 7, and on the next page, she found a handwritten 0. Rosie was thrilled to find numbers don her little black notebook. Page by page, she continued to search until she was satisfied she had seen every page containing a number. She tucked the little black notebook back into her knapsack and joined the children for their morning snack.

After supper, Rosie told Valentine about the notebook having numbers on some pages and nothing on others. Her Mom suggested Rosie use the new book to practice her math, and Rosie agreed. After supper, Rosie found her notebook and began to play with the pages. Seeing some pages with numbers and others with none began to bother Rosie's growing mind. So Rosie, being Rosie, grabbed a yellow post-it and wrote out the numbers she saw on each page. Seeing 17090020000 written meant nothing to her. She tucked the yellow note into the black notebook when her Momma called out, "it's bathtime."

Valentine carried her happy, clean, little sleepy child to bed when bathtime was finished and plopped her down. Instantly, the yellow post-it note flew into the air and landed faceup on the floor. Valentine bent down and picked up the paper, asking Rosie, "what's this?" Rosie explained the numbers she found in the book and wrote them as they appeared on each page. Continuing with, "too many numbers are hard to figure out." Her Mother's eyes smiled while saying it's a phone number with a whole lot of zero's. Rosie was thrilled to hear her Momma explain the list of numbers. Rosie thought they should call the number and see if it works. Valentine laughed at her beautiful little girl and the wild ideas she can speak so close to bedtime. Valentine took the yellow note in hand, placed a kiss upon her daughter's sleepy head and settled in the living room. Staring at the phone number, Valentine began to wonder why someone would tape an almost empty little black notebook in a library? Curiosity got the best of Valentine, and she dialled the phone number. An answering machine picked up, and the words spoken made Valentine laugh with glee.

You have reached the Mathematics department contest line. If you have the little black notebook, you are the grand prize winner of a brilliant mind and $20,000. Please deliver the notebook to the MUN Mathematics Department to collect your prize.