+3 -1 +2 = 8 Seriously James... You Know I am Highly Allergic To Numbers!!!

It is a fact: music helps kids learn math. You can Google it and find scores of interesting, and not so interesting pages on it.  I'm not talking about the kid songs that help them learn the number facts.  I am talking about the connection with time, rhythm and, meter.  James likes math because it makes sense to him.  He also loves music because of the time, rhythm and, meter of his favorite songs.  James hate math timed tests because it throws off his time, rhythm and meter.  If he loses his rhythm the whole page of numbers becomes a mess of jumbled numbers with no rhyme or reason.
About a month ago, James and I were in the car and listening to one of his favorite CD's (Adam Lambert's For Your Entertainment, please don't judge James, it is a rhythm thing) we were almost done with the CD (it has 14 tracks) and all of a sudden James screamed - 6! Not knowing what was going on I asked, "- 6 what?" - 6,  - 6, by this time the CD had gone back to the first track.  Then all of a sudden, + 7, + 7, +7!!! Oh heaven, my son was having a mental breakdown and is being haunted by numbers!  "Mom, + 7 please I need 8." "8 what James?" "8 song mom 8 song." Light dawns on my foggy brain and I finally get what he wants.  He wants track 8 If I Had You (click here).  Now that I know how to play the game James has a lot of fun with it.  It drives his sister insane having to listen to the same tracks over and over again but that is Autism ~ party in the familiar.
There are few moments that stick my brain more than the day back when James was 6 or so sitting in the car listening to this song and I heard his sweet little voice sing all of the words to track 8!  When you have a child with limited language, you hope for the day that they will say anything. (well not really anything... the first time James said F*** perfectly was not one of my prouder moments!  Awesome diction ~ Yeah James, great rhyming with truck and duck, but never say that word again please.)

So what is +3-1+2 = 8? If you answered 4 you are thinking to hard and need to probably take a nap. The answer is a happy car ride!!  Some other favorites are Shania Twain UP (red version) #12 Ka-ching (click here) and on the new SMASH album #1 Touch Me, (Interesting choice for a kid who prefers not to be touched!  Again it is a rhythm thing!)(click here) So today I chose to find my bliss in numbers that keep James calm even though everyone else in the car is losing their minds.  I chose to make 8, 12 and 1 my favorite #'s even though they are James' favorite numbers.  I chose not to try to figure out what moves my son to like something and just be happy that he is able to find joy. Where will you find your bliss today?