did I ever tell y’all about the time I accidentally opened a mini casino in my sixth grade classroom?
that year in elementary school we were learning about the ancient mesoamerican cultures, and for our final projects we had to recreate something from that era/region to share with the class. some kids brought in food, some kids brought in dioramas, some kids made clothing and put on a fashion show. for my final project I recreated an aztec game called patolli. it’s basically a board game that involves dice, players, and some light gambling. mine was the most popular project. the game was so much fun that we played it on our lunch breaks for the rest of the year, even after we’d moved on from that part of the curriculum. students from the other 5/6 grade classrooms would come over and play the game with us, too. at first everyone was just gambling with the game pieces I’d made, then we started gambling with snacks from our lunches, then we all started bringing in candy from home, then we started using actual money. even at that age we knew that gambling is bad so we were really quiet and secretive about it until one kid gambled away his shoes and the teachers caught on and put a stop to the game
Tag: children
Watching my toddler figure out how to language is fascinating. Yesterday we were stumped when he kept insisting there was a “Lego winner” behind his bookshelf – it turned out to be a little Lego trophy cup. Not knowing the word for “trophy”, he’d extrapolated a word for “thing you can win”. And then, just now, he held up his empty milk container and said, “Mummy? It’s not rubbish. It’s allowed to be a bottle.” – meaning, effectively, “I want this. Don’t throw it away.” But to an adult ear, there’s something quite lovely about “it’s allowed to be a bottle,” as if we’re acknowledging that the object is entitled to keep its title even in the absence of the original function.
Another good post to read for those writing small human characters.
My son was about three when he came to me in the middle of the day and said, “Mommy, there’s a knight behind the bush.” I thought he meant a toy knight or something. So I follow him outside and he goes, “Listen. Do you hear it? It’s night behind the bush.” It was a cricket. A cricket was standing in the little patch of shade under the bush, chirping. So, my son saw this dark area with accompanying nighttime sounds and decided, okay, well, that is a night right there. Their brains are incredible.
My little bean knows she’s two, constantly saying proudly ‘I’m two!’ And the other day she saw this very frail old lady who looked one foot in the grave, pulled a face and said ‘oh shiiiit. She’s three.’ I almost screamed.
sparksoffandommagic 