As you may or may not know, as of about a year ago, Matt has become quite a fan of and expert on board games for the family. He’s chosen many, many good titles for us to purchase, receive as gifts and play together as a family! One of our recent gifts was the game Keep It Steady (or Zitternix in the original, which is what the kids like to call it). It’s a very basic game. You have a bundle of 27 wooden sticks in three different colors held in a precarious upright position by a wooden ring. On your turn, you roll a die and pull a stick in the color indicated. The goal is to get as many sticks as you can without knocking down the bundle! Guess who is best in our family at playing this game? Robyn!
It is so funny to watch her play. She can’t get the bundle set up by herself, but once Mama sets it up, her skills shine. Yesterday I played several games with her. She rolls the die (which has a colored dot on each side) and then chooses the appropriate stick. Interestingly, she can’t even name her colors yet, but when she rolls a red, yellow or blue dot, she can identify which stick matches that color. She comments on whether she gets a “big one” or a “tiny one” (each color stick is a different diameter). Then, she picks her stick very carefully and announces, “Didn’t fall!” if she has been successful. Finally, she hands the die to me and says, “Your turn!”
Yesterday the first two games we played began with Robyn announcing, “First me.” Hey, that’s fine. She’s two. I can handle letting her go first. But when the third game started the same way, I decided maybe it was time for a lesson in good gaming manners. I said, “You know Robyn, Mama doesn’t mind letting you go first in some games. But it’s also nice when you say to the other person, ‘Here, you can go first.” She considered what I had said and then replied, “OK!” She grabbed the die, took her turn and then handed it to me saying, “Here, you can go first!” Apparently it was all semantics.
It is so funny to watch her play. She can’t get the bundle set up by herself, but once Mama sets it up, her skills shine. Yesterday I played several games with her. She rolls the die (which has a colored dot on each side) and then chooses the appropriate stick. Interestingly, she can’t even name her colors yet, but when she rolls a red, yellow or blue dot, she can identify which stick matches that color. She comments on whether she gets a “big one” or a “tiny one” (each color stick is a different diameter). Then, she picks her stick very carefully and announces, “Didn’t fall!” if she has been successful. Finally, she hands the die to me and says, “Your turn!”
Yesterday the first two games we played began with Robyn announcing, “First me.” Hey, that’s fine. She’s two. I can handle letting her go first. But when the third game started the same way, I decided maybe it was time for a lesson in good gaming manners. I said, “You know Robyn, Mama doesn’t mind letting you go first in some games. But it’s also nice when you say to the other person, ‘Here, you can go first.” She considered what I had said and then replied, “OK!” She grabbed the die, took her turn and then handed it to me saying, “Here, you can go first!” Apparently it was all semantics.
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