Saturday, August 14, 2010

It's A New World Record!

I'm giving away our new favorite book - Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten here.

I have a new giveaway up for a Monopoly board game here.

***

We have recently introduced the wee ones to a new game. They are absolutely loving Uno, although Mister Man has decided that he's retired for a week now because he's won too many times and it's someone else's turn.

I've yet to win. And we're absolutely not giving either of the wee ones an advantage. In fact, I've yet to even get down to Uno. We're all still having a blast with it, though.

I remember playing games growing up and having them last maybe ten or fifteen minutes. Every once in awhile, we'd have a game where we had to reshuffle the played cards because the game was going long, but it wasn't super common.

Enter the wee ones. We played a game yesterday that lasted an hour and twenty-two minutes. Today, we had a game go for well over two hours. And yes, there were multiple deck shufflings happening in both games.

Part of the reason the games go so long is because the wee ones draw past cards they could have played simply because they had a strategy. They wanted to save wild cards for the end to ensure they could go out. I wasn't the one to teach them this strategy (that would be my husband - and he soon regretted it).

Mister Man was pretty good at holding his cards in his hand - until he had too many. Little Miss had a different strategy where she'd lay all the cards facedown on the glass table and then swing underneath to see if she had any cards she could play. Mental and physicaly exercise for her.


There were times when the wee ones had more than thirty cards in their hands because somehow they were missing the color that was being played and somehow didn't have the number played either. They simply continued to draw.

I was ok with this. They had to learn that what they were doing wasn't actually helping them win in the end - with some judicious advice but not commandeering their games. It drove my husband batty. He couldn't stand watching them continue to draw. He hated seeing the game extended - again.


But really, where did we have to be? What did we have to do that was more important than playing a game with our children? What would we rather hear than the delighted squeals of joy as they once again "caught" us with a draw four or skip card?

Me? I'm hoping I'm sitting at that table again tomorrow hoping against hope that I'll be able to get to shout Uno and then play that very last card but being totally happy if I once again end the game with eighteen cards still in my hand.

13 comments:

Tara R. August 14, 2010 at 10:08 PM  

We used to play card games when I was a kid too. The hubs and played Hearts when we were in college, that and a new game, I think it was called 'Trivial Pursuit.'

Good luck making it to Uno.

anymommy August 14, 2010 at 10:16 PM  

Yes. I love this perspective.

Hyacynth August 14, 2010 at 10:32 PM  

These are the times that will shape their memories of their childhoods. I need to say yes more to playing games instead of putting it off. This is a super reminder for me to do that!

Mrs4444 August 14, 2010 at 10:47 PM  

I remember the days of UNO. Last night, we played a pretty rowdy game of GameWave (video trivia version) with Mr.4444's brother and his family, plus his mom. We laughed a lot. Good, clean, family fun; those games! :)

Joanna Jenkins August 14, 2010 at 11:22 PM  

Our family LOVES Uno. Three generations play together and have a blast! But we've never tried the card "holding" idea. That's a good one.
Cheers, jj

Alexis AKA MOM August 15, 2010 at 2:51 AM  

I use to love playing cards when I was younger. Hehe my husb would so be the ones showing the boys that trick.

I like the glass table trick

Unknown August 15, 2010 at 8:06 AM  

Loved that this post gave me the reminder I needed to realize that TOF is probably ready to move on beyond the matching games and learn to play UNO. Which I am proud to say was created right here in J-Town ;)

Pat August 15, 2010 at 5:06 PM  

I love the way you let your kids learn from their mistakes instead of enabling them by always fixing their mess-ups. Of course, there are those times when mom has to fix their mess-ups for one reason or another! Hope you win Uno soon.

Michelle August 15, 2010 at 9:15 PM  

Tara - A new game? *snort* I can only imagine how fun that would be in college.

Stacey - It's very *you* and something that I need to do more of. Ironically, I do better at it when other people aren't doing so well at it.

Hyacynth - Amen. They've been having a blast. And Little Miss won four games in a row today. *sigh*

Mrs4444 - Hmmm, I haven't heard of GameWave before. I'll have to look into that one. We love game nights!

Joanna - Ummm card holding *can* be a good idea. Don't count on it though; there are times the wee ones end up with thirty plus cards in their hands!

Alexis - The glass table is pretty cool. Apparently my mom told the wee ones that I used to do that when I was little. Of course, that was also when I was playing my Gram and stacked the deck and was slipping under the table to cheat....

Megryansmom - You'd be surprised what TOF can do, probably. UNO is supposed to be for 8 and up, I think, but ... Little Miss *just* turned 5 and was fine with it - as I'd imagine most five year olds would be.

Pat - I try to do that. But not everyone does. It drives me nuts when my husband or my mom steps in to do something for them that they could absolutely do on their own - maybe slower or maybe not 100% correctly, but could still do. Then again, I could probably let them do more themselves, too. It's hard to always let go though.

Karen August 17, 2010 at 5:41 AM  

Ah, I'm smiling from ear to ear.

septembermom August 18, 2010 at 2:48 PM  

We get into big UNO competitions here. Usually, the boys have fun. Sometimes they get too crazy about it.

Lucy August 19, 2010 at 3:14 PM  

Love this! Can't wait for Little Ricky to be old enough to play--fun!!

Michelle August 24, 2010 at 9:46 PM  

Karen - Why am I not surprised that this is right up your alley?

Kelly - I'm actually finding that the more we play, the better it is for Mister Man to NOT get too crazy about it as he sees that we lose and are ok with it, too. Especially since I'm now the running joke.

Lucy - He will be sooner than you think. And ummm get the waterproof (UNO H2O) cards. They don't bend as easily, I've learned ;)

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