Go Fish!

Many more games of Go Fish were played today between me and A. She even managed to beat me a few times. I kept trying to give her pointers so that the playing field would be evened out, but she really took defeat well anyway. You can see that she is becoming determined to learn the game, to learn the intricacies of the strategy, even to learn to shuffle and deal the cards. You'd think all we did was play around here. And you would be right! But play is child's work and how they best learn. Besides I am focusing on helping my children learn how to learn, not random lists of facts or out of context skills, anyway.

This morning, before I had fully woken up, A was begging to play. I was drinking my tea and reading my email and so I asked her to sit with me and I could do both. Meanwhile, E was in the other room, very busy. She was in her own world, playing who knows what, but I could hear a constant stream of chatter and song coming from her. This is when she drags all the toys out and creates chaos right in the main walking path of the house. She is lost in E's world and I can not go there.... Anyway, I came out after the card games were done and saw the mess and tried to ignore it. But when she asked to be taken to Target to buy a toy with her money, I said I would if she cleaned up while I was in the shower. When I came down, the whole room was spotless! She had even gotten out the dustpan and swept up some crumbs and stuff. My baby is not a baby anymore, and I owed her a trip to Target.

We hit the clearance on Halloween stuff and got a bunch of stuff for 25 cents each. I love a bargain! The girls were running towards the toy aisles when I saw that they had scooters on sale. A has outgrown the three wheeled one we got for her a few years back and E has virtually claimed it anyway, so A picked out a Hello Kitty scooter, with only two wheels, for herself. They each got something for themselves and I picked up a Boggle game for the family. I figured A would not be very good yet, but we could try it. We can play the solitaire version, but as a team, and I can help her find and spell words.

When we got home, much scooting was done around the house. A was very proud of the fact that she can ride a two wheeled scooter now. E was very pleased to claim the other one. She even took off the bag, like a handlebar basket on a bike, it had on it, since A's did not come with one. They took turns on the new scooter, but E declared it too hard and happily went back to the old one. They even played with the new toys together a lot this evening.

Harry Potter four is almost done! Just a few more chapters and we will be ready for the movie. A told me tonight that she liked reading a book first and seeing the movie afterward, better than reading a book she had seen the movie for already. This proves she truly is my daughter!