Sunday, March 27, 2011

Let's Play a Board Game Instead - #361


Chinese Checkers
Photo by Amy LV


Our family has been playing a lot of Chinese Checkers lately.  Somehow I missed this experience in childhood, but it's a quick blast of a strategy game.  Plus, the glass marbles make a pleasing little "click" as they move across this board.  (Some Amazon reviews says that the marbles are plastic...perhaps they have changed the design.  I would not want plastic marbles.)

This house has no video games, so choosing board games is not really much of a choice.  But today I wrote pretending to be someone choosing a board game instead of a usual screen game.  I wrote about something that I like to do, hoping just a wee bit that people who read this poem will want to play more board games too.

Students - what do you like to do that you think others should try?  Writing gives people a glimpse into a new world, a way of seeing things differently.  People make choices and change their lives based on what they read.  

Two weeks ago, I read "For My Daughter Who Loves Animals," by Dorianne Laux

Every week, whether the money is there 
or not, I write a check for her lessons.....

...Now I see how she has always loved them all,
snails and spiders, from the very beginning,
without fear or shame, saw even
the least of them, ants, gnats, heard
and answered even the slightest of their calls.

After reading this poem, I scheduled a riding lesson for Hope, something we had set aside due to the expense.  Dorianne's words changed my actions.

Words are powerful indeed.

This week's goal:  beat Henry in Chinese Checkers!

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2 comments:

  1. Toby! Yet another way we're alike. I'm so glad to have brought back a memory...you have certainly done this for me many a'time. A.

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  2. Games every night in our household, often card games. No TV. Can really relate to this poem

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