Go Fish

Miss Mouse has been doing super with her alphabet; she knows pretty all capital and "small-partner" letters and can write most of them, as well.

What she hasn't been completely sure of is number-recognition past 5. As of mid-September, she recognized the symbols up to 5, but past there, she was sort of fuzzy on the symbols. Counting isn't a big deal for her; she can count up to 30 herself and beyond with help. But the number recognition was something I knew we needed to work on.

In September, I started having "Momma time" with each girl in the afternoon. Each girl gets 30 minutes of me to herself. They both love it and ask for it everyday. I love it. I think we're going to love it even more on the long, cold winter days to come. Anyway, it occurred to me one day that playing cards forces number recognition, but that it does it in a fun way! Miss Mouse loves worksheets, but I can only dole out so many of those in good conscience. So, Miss Mouse was introduced to "Go Fish"!

We usually play in her room, as the afternoon sun streams in her window, each of us sitting on a warm spot of carpet, our bare feet soaking in the heat. On this particular day, I just couldn't resist grabbing my camera, something about her blonde curls and big eyes, I guess.

While we sit and play, at least on the days that Sunny obediently takes her "quiet time" in her own room, we focus only on each other, only on our game. That's all there is in the world, all that matters for those 30 minutes.

It's been four years since I laid on the living room floor, in a piece of sunshine, staring at my sweet baby staring at me. I wouldn't change where we're at in life right now at all; there's so much excitement, so much going on - swimming, Sunday School, playdates - but there is a simplicity and quietness and stillness to sitting on a piece of sunshine with this little blonde girl.

It's really just a bonus that she's improved tremendously in hand coordination (and she has always had pretty good dexterity - Cheerios were never an issue for her left pointer and thumb....) and now recognizes all the numbers in the deck.

As of this day we hadn't even introduced a scoring system yet, but look at that tongue! For a no-pressure game, she certainly concentrates!

And concentrates....

Until she gets them "just right" in her hand.

Just this past week, Miss Mouse finally understood the idea that she isn't supposed to tell me which cards she has. She now thinks it's hilariously funny to hide her cards from me, especially if she draws one she knows I want. Then I can tell from her cat-that-ate-the-canary face that there's a card there I want!

Yesterday I attempted to introduce a scoring system where each card laid down is worth two points...it's my attempt to integrate "skip counting" into "Go Fish". Really, today I integrated her memory verse (Psalm 90:12) into "The Doodlebops" television show story; I should be able to get skip counting into a card game!

One thing I love about these half-hour segments of card playing with my four-year-old is that I can see Papa sitting across from me at his kitchen table, smell the coffee and Emma's doughnuts, hear the door open when Dad comes into check on us as we play our own game of "Go Fish"; I can see Grandma playing hand after hand of "Rummy" with me, all afternoon card games that lasted until one of us was too hungry to play anymore, or until Grandpa came in to see what was for supper. How can it be that those memories are 20+ years old now? I love that we've carved out time for Miss Mouse to have her own memories of games....of time with people who love her....of quiet moments sitting on a piece of sunshine.