# Chicken skewers

Saturday was a great day. I took Tabitha to dance class, which afforded me an hour to do some reading. Then it was time for lunch and a great family tradition—Free First Saturday at the Walker Art Center.

For lunch, I chose Thai.

We shared an appetizer of chicken satays and Pad Thai. I felt guilty about the lack of adventure in my choices, then remembered that I was teaching my five year old to eat Thai food.

The satays arrived in short order.

Tabitha (five): Oh! Four of them. So we each get two.

I was hungry, so I let this go for a little while. Later, though, I followed up.

Me: You said we would each get two. What if there had been six skewers?

T: I don’t know. I don’t go that high.

T: Four and four. Or maybe three and three.

Me: Three and three. Good. What if there had been three skewers?

T: Because one person gets two and the other person gets one. How is that fair?

Me: Hmmm. Good point. What could we do about that?

T: Split it in half.

Me: OK. Then how much would we each get?

T: I don’t know.

Me: Well, you’d get one whole one and a half. So $1\frac{1}{2}$ skewers.

T: Right.

Re-reading our campsite conversation from a few months back, I can see that she still isn’t ready to use fractions as numbers. They still don’t really answer how manyquestions in her mind.

After lunch, it was off to the Walker. Which is where we had this fabulous photograph taken. Like I said; Saturday was a great day.