Sunday, October 30, 2011

Crossing over Puzzle - 3years 6months old

Zo Ee at 3years 6months old. (29th October 2011)




A classic math problem about a man trying to get a goat, a cabbage, and a wolf across a river. There is only space for the man and one other thing in the boat. If the wolf and the goat are left together, the wolf will eat the goat, if the cabbage and goat are alone, the goat will eat the cabbage. How does he get all three across the river?




A friend posted this online and was surprised as to how her two children solve it differently. S0 I was curious whether Zo Ee will understand such puzzle and somehow she managed to get the answer correctly. I think it's a combination of luck with some reasoning skill but I still and won't believe that she could solve it since she is only 3years 6months old. Initially, she couldn't reason anything out by just listening to the question. So I drew it out for her. She was able to see it clearer with the drawing. Immediately she said Goat should cross first. I'm not sure why, maybe it was luck. Next was to bring the cabbage over. Followed by the wolf later. That's when I interfered, reminding her that that will not be possible as the goat will eat the cabbage while the man went back to get the wolf. They shouldn't be left alone together. She paused to think and before finally telling me that the man should bring the goat back across the river. Dropped the goat so that he can bring the wolf across and finally back to get the goat again. She got it and was proudly telling DH the answer.

No comments:

Post a Comment