Gone in 59 Seconds

Spit! Ethan is on a fluoride rinse program prescribed by his dentist. The poor guy. Last year he had a dental visit where we were told that he had 8 cavities. He just has teeth susceptible to cavities. He and Naomi brush the same way each day. Naomi's had nary a cavity.

Rinse. Rinse. Rinse. This goes on for a minute. Ring. Ring. Ring. We have a timer that goes off after a minute signaling that the fluoride rinse can be spit out.

At dinner last night, we were talking about telling time. This is something that we've had to really work on with the kids. They still have trouble sometimes telling time from a clock with old fashioned hands. I think that this is so because most of the clocks they see are digital clocks. It's pretty easy to tell time if the clock says: 7:45. You just have to know if it's 7:45 AM or 7:45 PM.

So at the dinner table last night I asked the kids, "How many seconds are there in a minute?"

Without hesitation, Ethan answered, "59 seconds."

"Why 59 seconds?" I asked.

Ethan was giggling, "I don't know."

Then I realized why. "Is it because of the timer we use to rinse?"

"Yeah, Dad. It says "59" whenever I rinse."

"That's really funny. Is it because when I start the timer it always starts with 59 seconds on it?"

What happens is that the timer starts with 1:00 on it, one minute, but the second that I start it, it shows 0:59 and continues to count down. Ethan had associated the 59 he was seeing as the time for one minute.