Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Update: Still Choref, Still Hot

So, here we are, well into choref by now. We had a brief rainshower on Friday, and two days of semi-pleasant weather, but now it's gone back to being hot as a cactus.

Updates:

1. Ariella plays Mastermind ("Bul Pegiah" in Israel.) This is nice. I like Mastermind. Playing board games with the kiddies gets much more fun when you get to play games that are objectively fun. (Objectively being defined here as "I like to play it.")

2. However, we are still stuck in Shootmenowville with Yaakov. He is very into CandyLand and, God help me, Chutes and Ladders. He came up with a great strategy on Shabbos. We were starting Candyland, and hadn't turned over the cards yet. He instructed me to put the ice cream card on top, and then he would go first and get the ice cream card! (If you don't know the meaning of the ice cream card, then it must have been a VERY long time since you played, because most children and adults today have the image of the Candyland board seared into their brains. Whisper "Candy cane" into their ear and watch them shudder.)

3. I said no, he would have to play the regular way. Toward the end, when he was close to losing (he was ahead because I got gumdrop, but then he got peanut brittle and I got lollipop), he said, "Let's stop playing now, Mommy. Let's just say that I won." Good Mom wanted to teach her son the valuable lesson of sticking through with something till the end, losing gracefully, etc etc, but Bad Mom was sooooo happy we could stop playing. Guess which mom won?

4. Nadav now flips over onto his stomach. He has trouble going back the other way (isn't stomach to back supposed to be the easier way?) His other hobbies include sucking on his toes and chewing on your thumb.

12 comments:

mother in israel said...

When I would offer to play with one of my sons he would say, "But I win, okay?"

OneTiredEma said...

We never had Candyland and Chutes and Ladders. Those games stay at Savta's house.

We do have lots of other games, however, that should have a "winner" and "loser," but instead they have "winner" "2nd winner" etc. Whatever prevents the sore loser temper tantrums, I guess.

Risa said...

Uh,oh! Just bough Chutes and Ladders for the big brother since he recently started playing those types of games, hoping that it would reinforce his counting skills. (Eleventeen is a number, right?) I planned on giving him the game as part of a Chanuka gift or for his little brother's birthday, iy'h. (I guess a whole other discussion. Just don't want him to be jealous of his little brother getting gifts while he gets nothing.) From your blog post, I am not sure if buying the game was a good idea. Candyland is at Savtas, so any suggestions for a game that won't make me want to tear my hair out? Thanks!

Gila Rose said...

It is so hard to draw that fine line between "teaching the lesson" and "not ending up in tears."

Risa, first of all "eleventeen" is definitely a number. It comes right before "twelve fourteen fourteen." The truth is, I don't mind Candyland as much as chutes- it only really gets bad when you have one of those never-ending games. Zingo is a lot of fun - I highly recommend that.

I also love Memory. Though, of course, teaching them that you, in fact, can NOT turn over a million cards in each turn till you find a match is another fun lesson in gaming....

MOMZWIFEOFDADZ said...

I would like to recommend "Trouble" - Ariella and I played it ninety three zillion times during the SUMMER OF NONSTOP FUN AT BUBBY AND ZAIDY'S HOUSE 2008 and I loved it.

But then again I have the mentality of a six year old.

MOMZWIFEOFDADZ said...

I would like to recommend "Trouble" - Ariella and I played it ninety three zillion times during the SUMMER OF NONSTOP FUN AT BUBBY AND ZAIDY'S HOUSE 2008 and I loved it. But then again I have the mentality of a six year old.

Gila Rose said...

Momz doesn't that horrendous "popping" sound in trouble take away from the fun?

Kathleen said...

We have never played Chutes and Ladders or Candyland at our house. The kids are deprived, I know. We do play Trouble and lots of card games. That popping noise does get irritating but I can handle it most of the time.
No one ever bought the kids those games and this Mom figured if no one seemed to miss them we didn't need to buy them.

Baila said...

The person who created candyland is a sadist. I used to put the later picture cards on the kids turn so they would win as quickly as possible. Hooray for bad mothering.

Another glimpse into your future: now we love playing games with the kids; and beating the pants off of them.

trn said...

I remember a dear family friend teaching me how to play Memory.

I had been making the mistake of turning over first the same card each turn and then a new card to look for a match. He pointed out that each new turn I ought to take the opportunity to turn over a new card to find out what it is, then only if it matches the one I turned over on a previous turn do I turn over that card too and make the match.

Yes, basic strategy, but as a young child it was so eye opening. Obviously the memory has stuck with me.

How about Sorry!? (The exclamation point is part of the name; the question mark is the punctuation for the sentence.) No popping noise like Trouble.

Also, Ariella isn't too young for Scrabble and would probably enjoy it.

But then again I have the mentality of a six year old.

Best comment by the mother of a blog author ever!

Gila Rose said...

Card games are also good - especially solitaire, bc they can play by themselves!

We do pull out Scrabble sometimes, she just need our help finding words. It's kind of cute.

MOMZWIFEOFDADZ said...

Thanks, trn! I'm honored! Gils, what do I get? what do I get?