Like Lena, katy, Bewildered (and somewhat like Ericka) I too have always associated digits with colors. 0=white, 1=gray, 2=red, 3=green, 4=yellow, 5=brown, 6=maroon, 7=silver, 8=blue, 9=orange. Letters of the alphabet, too. I recently read about the brain condition synesthesia, in which senses are mixed, and wonder if this is related.

Walter

I always thought that the numbr 100 was the biggest number and that it was the last one. So, when I knew all my numbers up to 100, and then was informed that I was sadly mistaken, I thought I will never memorize all those numbers. It would take years.

Anon

I can remember when I was little, I figured out how to count up to very large numbers for the first time. I was in the yard, and I counted outloud... I counted to fif-dee, then six-dee, then seven-dee, then eight-dee and finally nine-de,e and I kept going... nine-dee seven, nine-dee eight, nine-dee nine and finally --- TEN-dee! Ten-dee one, ten-dee two... until I got to ELEVEN-dee, then TWELVE-dee.

I was so proud, that after I got it down I did it in front of my mother, who then kindly corrected me, and explained that after nine-dee nine came one hundred.

I don't know how old I was, but the memory is as clear as a bell.

Wayne

I used to believe that 7 times 12 was equal to 83 or 84, depending on the math problem.

Eric Swensen

My sister was always playing computer battleships when I was little. I'd learned my numbers and my letters, and I was looking at the screen one day. I soon came to believe that every number had to be partnered with a letter, otherwise it would just be rejected.

Anon

When I was little I used to think that when you counted the numbers went 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10---- then 11-19 was replaced with one-ty like twenty or thirty. It went ten, onety-one, onety-two, onety-three... and so on!

Kratz

I thought 100 was the biggest number, but i saw the numbers 112, 156 in different places (like in magazines and whatnot), but it never registered that they were actual numbers. i thought that they were special and i would never have to use them.

However, when i learned that there _were_ numbers that i could use that were above 100, i would count like this: 1, 2, 3....56, 57.... 98, 99, 100, 101... 108, 109, 200, 201, 202... 208, 209, 300, and on up to 500. I never went past 500.

I could never figure out why I didn't say 112 then... duh!

ElbaliavanU

I also have the habit of associating numbers with colours (see: Katy). 3 is yellow, 4 is orange, 5 is red, 6 is purple, 7 is grey. I'm not sure about the others.

Lena

this isn't a belief, really - just the way it has always been for me ......when I visualize numbers, they are 3-dimensional and have specific colors: 5; is red; 6 is blue; 3 is yellow; 4 is brown; 2 is gray; 8 is pink; 9 is very pale gray and 1 and 10 are white; 11 is also a light gray...............after that color doesn't bear any relation to numbers for me.

katy

I used to (and still sort of do) always assume some numbers were more *special* than others. namely 5, 2, and 50.

i also remember multiplication in strange ways, rather than just memorizing or counting each time) because i think of the relationship two numbers have with each other, such as : 6 and 7 are unusual numbers, so multiplying them together creates a regular numbe:42

Weirdo

When I was in Kindergarten, I was wholly and completely convinced that thirty was the highest number. NO ONE got in the way of that no matter what they said, no matter how smart I believed they were. Thirty was the highest number in the world, a big intimidating, staggering number. I used to be very, very mad at my teachers who told me otherwise. I screamed at one of them at the top of my lungs (possibly more, I only remember one in particular). My friends back then even knew. They would say "well there's forty and fifty and sixty ...", and, let's make a long story short - they weren't my friends much longer.

Caitlin

My uncle told me that there was a number between six and seven called "bleen".

Five...Six...Bleen...Seven...Eight...

Dave

when my little cousin was 4, she was able to count until 9 in english. She said "one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eightnine..." she thought eightnine was a whole number.

ireberry

i thought that 1+1 actually was both 11, and 2.

hip hip