My daughter’s very first game

When I (finally!) cleaned out my garage this weekend, I unearthed a fairly cruddy croquet set. We last had it out at my daughters second birthday party, two months ago, as something for the adult guests to play with. She recognized it. “That’s from my birthday!” she squealed.

I’m not surprised it appeals to her. Brightly colored balls and, especially, colorful giant hammers are bound to delight a toddler. I offered to show her a game, and she eagerly agreed. I grabbed one wicket, one ball (orange, one of her favorite colors), and two mallets, and gave her a quick lesson in noncompetitive croquet.

Since she recognized the mallet as a hammer, she tried to deliver a vertical blow on the ball. The mallet—as tall as she is—struck on its side, knocking the ball toward her feet. She liked this quite a bit, taking a step back and hitting the ball toward herself over and over again.

When she realized the ball wasn’t heading toward the wicket, she tried to adopt my side swing. The mallet was really just too unwieldy for her, though, and she finally got frustrated enough that she demanded “a different game!”

I figured I could design something that would be more fun for a two year old, so I drew three concentric circles with sidewalk chalk on the driveway and my daughter, my wife, and I each took a pebble. The goal was simply to drop the pebble so it stayed within the outer circle. Each person had a different line to stand at.

Again, this game was a big hit. My daughter’s first drop (from all of twenty inches or so) landed pretty near the middle. My wife and I didn’t have as much luck, as our pebbles tended to bounce right out.

My daughter started gaming the system. She considered it fair to “drop” her pebble by squatting down and placing it in the middle, so we changed the rules: you have to keep your knees straight. She still managed to beat us, and finally she gave up hope that her parents would get the hang of the game. She collected up all the pebbles and, one at a time, played them. But she still wanted everyone to have a turn.

“Now it’s your turn, Mommy,” she said, dropping my wife’s pebble. “Now it’s your turn, Daddy,” and mine landed right near the middle.

As she closed her eyes to sleep, she told me, “I want to play a game with you tomorrow.” I promised her we would.

This kids version of Mumblety peg won’t win any awards, but it’s the very first time my daughter has engaged in an activity circumscribed by (admittedly loose) arbitrary rules with a mild competitive element.

In other words, I think it’s the first time she’s every really played a game!

Add comment July 25th, 2007