I Hope He Never Has a Friend Named Jack
Misty and I like playing games. I’m talking about board games here, not the Games People Play kind of games. We’ve decided to start Eli early on games. He’s not yet ready for SNAKES ON A BOARD, but we did discover one game he can play: Slap Jack.
Ah, yes, the game that combines all of the strategy of War with the chance for physical conflict. Divide the cards up so that everyone has an equal pile. Take turns flipping your top card over. When you see a jack, slap it to claim the entire pile.
Eli loves this game with a fiery passion. It has cards! It has slapping! What more do you need? The following is a partial transcript from a recent game.
S: Now you turn your top card over.
E: Okay.
[Eli turns over a three of hearts]
S: What is it?
E: It’s a three. A three of hearts.
S: Now I turn my card over.
[Stephen turns over a jack of diamonds]
S: What is it?
E: It’s…it’s a…a J!
S: That’s right! And what does J stand for?
E: Um, joker?
S: No, but close.
E: Queen!
S: No! It’s a jack.
E: Yeah! A jack.
[Pause]
S: What do we do with a jack?
E: We…we slap it! I slap it!
[Eli raises his hand in the air, waits, and then slowly and deliberately slaps the jack]
Later…
E: I have a J!
S: Right! And what does J stand for?
E: …Queen?
The sad thing is, he still beat me.
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Once he gets the hang of it, we need to teach him ERS, and then I can …
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ERS…
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Update: I bought him Dora Candyland and Curious George My First Uno today at the store. He is lovin’ the Backpack Candyland action!
P.S. Is everything character-covered over now or what?!?!!?
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Acutally, Joyce, I’ve taught him to play Bejeweled and Big Money from PopCap.
I told Stephen yesterday that it was ironic that of the two of us, I was the one pushing computer games on him.
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