On the ride to Hershey’s

Well, I suppose it makes sense if you look at it from the perspective of a kid…

During the hour and a half ride up to Hershey Park, I decided to play a few educational games with my niece and nephew.

The first game was a little bit of word play, introducing the use of puns, telling jokes that were applicable for seven year olds and younger.

My nephew, who insists he’s four, wanted to tell a joke.

“Knock knock.”
“Who’s there?” I asked.
“Orange.”
“Orange who?”

“Knock knock,” he repeated.
“Who’s there??”
“Orange.”
“Orange who??”

“Knock knock!”
“Who’s there?!?”
“Orange!”
“Orange who?!?”
“Orange you glad I didn’t say banana?”

The sincere mistelling of the joke was far more humorous than the punchline.

I decided to switch gears. I’d teach my niece how to guess a number by using a binary search. I started with the nephew.

“Erich, I’m thinking of a number between one at ten. What is it?”
“Four?”
“Well, uh, yes, actually it was four….”
“I’m good at this!!!”

“Madison, I’m thinking of a number between one and twenty. What is it?”
“I don’t know.”
“You have to guess.”
“Oh. Ten?”
“Higher.”
“Eleven?”
“Higher.”
…a little bit later…
“Nineteen?”
“That’s the number!”

Swapping back and forth between the kids, they quickly started to catch on it was easier to partition the number space and home in on the number as I was expecting them to do.

I thought the lesson was going well until:
“Uncle Walt, it’s your turn. Guess what number I’m thinking of between one and a hundred!”
“Hmm, I’ll guess right in the middle: 50?”
“WRONG!” she exclaimed with pleasure as if she’d won.

I was still waiting for a “higher or lower.” She then paused and, assuming I wasn’t saying anything because my feelings were hurt, offered condolences: “That’s okay, it was the first time you played.”