winning and the wisdom of children

Zoo Boy has recently had a preoccupation with winning. Or, more accurately, NOT winning. As in, to quote him, "I like to win, but when I play games with people I NEVER win, so I don't want to play games with people." This from a boy who both ADORES playing games, and who in general abhors playing by himself. Needless to say, this has weighed heavily on his, and hence my, mind -- how to play games and be with people yet avoid not winning.

A couple months ago, I bought a small supply of cooperative games by Family Pastimes to avert this sort of problem. They've been stashed away in my 'secret closet' (I'll have to blog about the secret closet at some point, but for now let's just say the closet itself is no secret, but what is in it IS, and it's padlocked to keep it that way), awaiting the right opportunity to emerge and delight. In thinking over Zoo Boy's recent dilemna with winning/not winning, I made a mental note to include "introduce new game" on the list of things to do today. Especially since twice yesterday he decline playing games (Chutes and Ladders and Cranium Cariboo) with J and me, choosing just to watch instead, with a sighed "I would never win, so I don't want to play".

But as it turns out, I never did have to unlock the secret closet this morning. Instead, the kids found their own solution to the competition problem. Above, you can see what they came up with. Using the Cranium Cariboo game set, they made up their own game, in which they worked as a team to dig up buried treasure. The "key" to unlocking the treasure compartments became a "shovel" in their imaginations, and they "dug up" the cards telling them which compartment to open, Zoo Boy working the "shovel" and J turning up the cards as he "dug". Mostly J let Zoo Boy do the work, serving as a combination coach and cheerleader. And in the end, when they'd uncovered all the treasure and opened the treasure chest, they celebrated with a victorious "we won!!" together.

I snapped my photo and got out of the way as they joyfully played another round of their game. The wisdom of children will never cease to amaze me.