8 July 2007

Children's Gaming Code

Today we had a great day visiting friends. Typically this means the adults chatted together and the children did their own things together. On the journey home I asked the children what they did. Eric replied:
"We beat Therese in Spit, then we played Dead, started a pillow fight, I won Carpet Skating - getting to Level 3, and we fed the pigs and I won."
Now, I understood the pillow fight but the rest needed further explanation.

The Game of Spit
This is a card game where each player has half a pack of cards each (26 cards) and speed is the name of the game. (The rules are here) Based on the noise we heard from the other end of the house, yelling and enthusiasm and the speed at which the players whack the cards on the table are all important elements to success.

Playing Dead

This was just an impromptu game where the first person is supposed to be dead, but she decided to holler instead, so the others tried to show here how to flop all over the furniture and be dead, but they were equally making lots of noise. Apparently it was great fun and like the caucus race in Alice in Wonderland everyone was a winner.

Carpet Skating

This was another impromptu game, but with increasingly complex rules as the game progressed. Basically it involved holding a cushion (apparently to make balancing more difficult), rushing forward leaping onto a small piece of carpet, sliding (skating) along the long hall. The key was to stay upright. The levels were increased as they added cushions or made other obstacles. Level 3 was balancing the cushion of your head, which Eric achieved.

Feeding Pigs

Normally feeding pigs is not a game, but where there's a will there's a way. Our friends had a number of pigs of lots of stale bread with which to feed them. The children started by tossing bread at the pigs to see if a piece stayed on the pig's back. They then timed to see how long it stayed there with the other children doing their best to knock it off with their bread. The pigs didn't mind as they could eat everything thrown at them, the adults didn't mind as someone was feeding the pigs and the children enjoyed the competition. Winners all round!

So there you go. Sometimes a simple question require a much longer explanation!

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