player

We have been playing a number of new games with Henry lately. He’s been playing with some dominos and a matching/memory game for almost a year but lately he’s really taken with a couple of card games and simple board games. He has a way to go before he will be able to keep his hand in cards a secret but we try not to take advantage of that too often. He’s really good at playing by rules it’s a fun phase because he isn’t really competitive yet. He is just as happy when someone else gets a match or a good spin as he is when he does. In fact, although he understands the goal is to “win,” he really enjoys the process so much that even “bad” spins or hands are just fine too. He does like to win, mostly for the shouting rights I believe, but not winning doesn’t seem to detract from his fun.

He has just started to take rules and instructions very seriously and asks for them to be read to him before almost every game we play even if we are not going exactly by the written rules. He will hold the box or card or pamphlet close to his face and squint his eyes and point at it with one finger and say things like, “when two players both win that’s the point. That’s what it says.” or, “when you get a match you put your cards down and make a pile,” or, “when the bird gets your basket he takes a little nibble and you have to put one back. That’s what it says. That’s how it goes.” I like playing by the rules but I’m wondering if maybe this strong interest in instructions is not the best thing given his age. Then again, it’s not like he follows any of my rules with consistency anyway. Maybe I should write them down. Or better yet, just hand him a piece of junk mail and tell him it says that it’s bedtime and he has to brush his teeth without any whining. It’s not like he can read yet anyway.

Other humorous anecdotes of late include his renaming of his most recent game “hot bingo!” (one must shout “hot bingo!” with arms raised when one’s card is filled) and applying gaming to daily life, I asked him is he wanted a sandwich and he said, “go fish,” I then asked if he wanted eggs and you can probably guess his reply. “Go fish.” I laughed at the cleverness of it but I can’t say I was thrilled that he came up with yet another way to rebuff my meal offerings.