Bingo!

Over the last few days, old games of mine and Chris' have been pulled from the depths of what we refer to as the "special toy closet". First it was Twister then Scrabble and, finally, Bingo. How could Chris and I possibly have the time to play these games? We're not. Our three year old is and he loves it.

A sane person probably wouldn't even consider getting any of these games out of their closet so that their 3 year old could play it. I hadn't thought of it before simply because it didn't even cross my mind that he'd be capable of playing any of them but I had an "aha" moment that has led to some fantastic entertainment for him and us as well.

The first inspiration came with Twister. I'm going to assume anyone who reads this is familiar with the game. What could easily be seen as a semi-naughty game involving the entanglement of limbs upon the colorful mat evolved into a completely benign and innocent way for Neil to enjoy jumping around on the different colored circles. Plus, the card that you spin to find out which hand or foot, right or left, goes on which colored circle provides a great opportunity to work on learning left from right. Aha! Not only did Neil enjoy jumping around on the mat, Evan and Dylan seemed to enjoy all the big, pretty colors as they scooted around on it, slapping their little hands on the circles. Finally, it gave Neil great pleasure to "tell" me where to put my hands and feet on the mat and watch me actually do it at his direction - a rare moment for him that sent him into a fit of giggles. (Of course, the fact that I looked like a goof ball doing it had nothing to do with it.)

Once my mind had been rewired to rethink uses of old board games, I began looking at the other games we had. That's when I stumbled on Scrabble. As I have mentioned in previous posts, Neil loves letters and is beginning to read. Scrabble was perfect for that. Although we didn't follow the rules at all, he thoroughly enjoyed creating words with the letters. Unfortunately, since the pieces are small, Scrabble had to be played away from baby brothers.

As much as he enjoyed Twister and Scrabble, the real breakthrough came with Bingo. As I peered into the semi-darkness of the special toy closet, my eyes found Chris' old Bingo game that he got in the 70s. Orange and faded, the box was falling apart and I noticed that Chris' name was written in permanent marker on it. I decided it was time this game be played again. No point in letting it sit there and collect dust.

Unlike the other games we'd played thus far, Neil actually learned how to play Bingo. We both had our cards and he was the announcer. I don't know what current Bingo games come with but Chris' comes with a little mechanism which you turn and a Bingo chip slides out. Neil absolutely loved this thing which is amusingly the colors of orange and yellow - so 70s. We played Bingo off and on all day today and he never tired of reading off the letter and number on the chip, scanning his and my cards and placing the little circle over the numbers when they were there. He even beat me on his first try.

I am amused that these games are so entertaining for him and that they even provide good opportunities for him to strengthen his knowledge of colors, letters and numbers. What else could a parent ask for? I mean, it was free, he loves it and he's learning. I think that all lines up to one successful "Bingo!"