New torture device by the name of “Go Fish”
July 10, 2009My big objective for the summer is to teach Charger board games and card games that his peers at kindergarten will be familiar with. This way, he has a strong base upon which to build a friendship.
Charger goes through a set-process with each new game. First, he’s intrigued. New cards means new things to look at and ask, ‘What does that say?” even though he already knows. Then, he hates it. Exploration is done and it is time to learn new and frustrating rules. At this point, he needs to be coaxed into playing it and reinforced for every attempt. Next, he sort of likes it. He’ll play when the game is an option, but he won’t actively seek it out. Finally, he becomes obsessed. He carries the game around at all times and ask everyone he walks into to play with him.
Charger’s current obsession is with Thomas the Tank Engine Uno and a dollar tree game called “Robot Race”. He’ll probably even attempt to take them with him to the game farm today.
But evil Cale is making Charger learn a new game, with the very sinister title of “Go Fish.” In case you are unaware of the rules:
- Each player gets seven cards. This is good; it is familiar. Uno also requires seven cards.
- You look at your cards to see if you have a match. This is not good because your favorite card might not be in your hand. Then you want to look through the deck for it, and evil Cale says “No.”
- You have to ask the other player if they have a card you need. This is totally bogus. Why waste all the energy on speech when you could just look at their hand to see if they have the card. But evil Cale won’t turn his hand to face you, so you have to ask.
- If the card isn’t had, the other player says “Go fish.” This is just plain illogical. There is no fishing in the game, and youi aren’t a fish so it isn’t like “Go, fish!” Which idiot thought this line up?
- When you Go Fish, you pull one card from the deck. This doesn’t make any sense either. You’re looking for a certain card (the one you asked for). So why can’t you just take the deck apart to find it? Instead, Evil Cale puts his hand on the deck and says “Just one!” Who made him boss?
- When you run out of cards, the game ends. This is good. This is just like Uno.
- The person with the most matches wins. Hey, wait a second. If I ran out of cards first, why don’t I win? This whole game is bogus!
Hopefully Go Fish grows on Charger. Otherwise it is going to be a long six weeks of “No Fish! No Fish Cale! Noooo FIssssshh!”
Wow, you are evil
who knew? Uno is one Daniel likes too. As well as Connect Four. That is often in classrooms, you may want to look into it if you haven’t already. Candy land is by far Daniel’s favorite, still. We’ve owned so many of these games and he goes through phases that he carries it around. We often lose the “good cards” which are Jolly, Mr Mint etc. So this post makes a LOT of sense to me!
Have you tried Memory? Snakes and Ladders? Candy Land? MONK loved those.
Snakes and ladders is going to be our next game. He loves the Robot Race game because it has a slide which he brings the robot down and says “rejected! Sad rejected robot!”. I’m thinking we can do the same with the chutes on Snakes and Ladders.
Memory is a game that we are building up to. He currently likes to play the version he has on his leapster, where they show one card and you look through all the cards to find a match. He has a whole script for it, so he enjoys that version, so we’ll make the transition over to traditional memory slowly.
Candy Land we’re taking our time on. Although he knows all of his colors, he still has issues with the concept of “next” (as in move to the “next” green space). Moreover, it is difficult to rig a game of candy land when he’s had several consecutive losses and really needs a win.
Connect 4 I need to get my hands on. They don’t have a copy at the library or Dollar Tree (where I get most of my games) so that one might have to wait until his mom is feeling generous.
Hmmmmmmm have you tried a Thrift Store for games? Garage sales are another good source.
Ask neighbors if they have any you can use or even buy. You might be surprised with what they will let you have cheaply or for free.
Hahahaha… I made my kid learn Go Fish too. I remember him asking me why you say that line, and me actually trying to explain it to him. Fun times.
Evilmom did give up on trying to play catch with a glove and softball. It makes so much more sense to catch the ball with the hand that’s not bogged down by this huge heavy thing. Talk about frustration!