Got Game?

I'm not a game player, as I believe I've confessed here, and I am really not a video game player, having come of age during Pac-Man and Space Invaders and not really seeing the point of hanging out with the boys in the stinky arcade next to the movie theater (and we didn't really have a system to play at home because, well, I didn't like to play video games). Mama likes certain games and we tried MYST together for awhile, but I'm hopeless. We also tried chess, and that's about the only game I'll play with Mama. And I'm okay with that.

Games, however, are important and I keep coming across articles pointing that out to me (I think the most recent was in Mothering). So, we gamely (snicker) opened the CandyLand and Chutes and Laddes that Aunt Banana sent for the holidays and have tried to play. Sis, however, doesn't really like playing the way the rules states but instead prefers to move the pieces around like they are sightseeing. Bud actually wants to play and we got through a whole game of Chutes and Ladders, with some help, because he didn't always move his piece in the right direction.

We also think it's important that the kids learn some computer skills, starting with how to use a mouse. So, we have been playing a few games here and there. Mama even got them their own mouse/trackball to use since the touchpad on our laptop is too challenging for beginners. And when we go to the library, they play some Reader Rabbit games there. Personally, I like letting them send email to family, which consists mainly of upper and lower case letters often from their names. But I'll watch them play too.

Today, they were playing more advanced games--Diego, Miss Spider--things they aren't really ready for. And Sis, getting frustrated, said to the computer, "That is not the way I want to do it." I totally understand, Sis, and I'll play "Touring CandyLand" with you any day.