Little children love games, and can make them out of anything. Last weekend I was having my breakfast when my younger kid came around and I fed him a spoon of porridge. As he first walks away, I asked, “another spoon of porridge?” He laughs and came back, taking a mouthful of porridge. Then, he began to walk, this time slowly and slowly away. Every time he moved away, I would say “another?” and he would laugh coming back for another mouthful of porridge. This dragged out a long while till I finished my bowl of porridge.
A lot of games little children play begin as if by accident. One day, my younger kid came home with his older brother. First, the older brother would turn on the light in the rooms, then my younger kid would turn it off so as to turn it on. Soon, the two boys would have their “game” going, which lasted for some time till we stopped them telling them it is wrong for wasting electricity.
But thinking about it, even in a more narrow sense games like the latter case, all these may be educational. How? They give the child a stronger feeling of cause and effect, of one thing leading to another. Also, like the latter case, they help the child to feel that he makes a difference, (bringing light to the house) that he can have some effect on the world around him. How exciting it must be for my younger kid, playing a game with an adult (me) or his older brother, to feel that by doing a certain thing, and that he can make that other do something, and he can keep it on as he likes.
The greatest difference between what the kids and adult consider as game is that most of the children once finding them fun, enjoyable, readily accepts it while most adults, in particular if they have never played such games, totally reject it.
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