Put it this way. before he says it, we have
GG, GB, BG, BB
after he says "I have a child that is [MALE OR FEMALE]" we have (where the capital letter is the child whose sex has been mentioned, and the lowercase letter is the other child):
Gg, gG, Gb, gB, Bg, bG, Bb, bB
So if he has said the sex is male, then we have four combinations left:
gB, Bg, Bb, bB.
Understand that we go to more scenarios (8) based on which child is mentioned, before we go to fewer. Actually the order of the children is something you can and should ignore, however as you are holding on to it, I show it this way....
I'm afraid this is wrong - you shouldn't distinguish between Bb and bB. In this problem, they are not different states, so counting them messes up your probability calculation.
Put it this way. before he says it, we have GG, GB, BG, BB
after he says "I have a child that is [MALE OR FEMALE]" we have (where the capital letter is the child whose sex has been mentioned, and the lowercase letter is the other child):
Gg, gG, Gb, gB, Bg, bG, Bb, bB
So if he has said the sex is male, then we have four combinations left:
gB, Bg, Bb, bB.
Understand that we go to more scenarios (8) based on which child is mentioned, before we go to fewer. Actually the order of the children is something you can and should ignore, however as you are holding on to it, I show it this way....