The other day I was crusin' the internet and came across this little story...
Here's a fun little game I made up that's really easy to play. We played it while we were sitting around eating lunch but you could easily play it in the car to ease the time it takes you to get wherever you may be going. It's really simple and even my 14 year old played along.
Yesterday at lunch, my 4 year old son, Shorty, and I were talking about the United States and their capitals. (Shorty knows more US geography than a lot of adults I know, It's just a thing he likes. Some guys like trucks or dinosaurs. Shorty likes geography. I know - it's a little freaky to me too.) So out of the blue I just asked him what Shorty-ville would look like? For starters, he re-named it Shorty City. We started with things like what colors the houses would be and went on to discuss what types of stores and restaurants would be in "his" city. And how they would be placed - the playground would be right next to the church. Then we asked his older brother, #1 Son (He's 9 and is not a geography whiz.) what his city would be like. He jumped right in and had lots of ideas. Sweetanlo (14) helped by making suggestions of things or places that they hadn't thought of including. For the record, he'd place Shorty City in the great state of Texas. (His favorite state since his best friend moved there last winter.) Shorty had so much fun with this that he was still talking about it tonight at bedtime. Tonight he said that tomorrow we'd have to talk about our dog's city, which he cleverly named, Lucy Land, all on his own.
It was easy. It encouraged creativity and imagination. No small pieces to lose. Nothing to clean up or put away. It's portable and expandable. It didn't end in bickering or tears. This kind of game works-for-me!
What would your city look like? What would it be named? It sounds like a fun game that kids would really get in to!
2 comments:
i would be the small city of katonia, along the mediteranian.
all i know is there would definitely be a playground next to the church.
well, 'mattropolis' would be run by amazonian pygmies. it would be located on an isolated island off the coast of some place i've never heard of. the buildings would be made of brick (made from baked corn chips). except for the one skyscraper which would be made from marble (made from baked marbles). as for the playground next to the church, well, it would probably be made from the laughter of baby sea urchins. and the tv would feature 'iron chef: mattropolis' where the special ingredient would be an inanimate object of some kind.
and we would be at war with shorty city.
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