Time to play!

For as long as I can remember, my mother and I have been battling each other in energetic games of Scrabble. I realize this doesn’t sound like it would be an energetic game but, trust me, we become very animated as we compete. My favorite part is that, despite the fact that my mother undoubtedly has a larger vocabulary, I always seem to win. Not just, “Wow, you beat me again by a couple of points,” but a “Come on!  How do you always gets 80 points when you put down an E?!” kind of win. She does win sometimes. Rarely. But sometimes. Honestly, the only reason we play, is because it makes us laugh.

My husband, a man with a vocabulary that includes words not even defined in the OED, won’t play Scrabble with me. Although, he and my mother would have a very interesting game and I would probably learn a preponderance of new words as I notice a million ways to beat them both. However, when it comes to Monopoly, I usually find myself homeless under Boardwalk. But the only tears I ever shed are the ones born of uncontrollable laughter.

We love games in my house. Candyland, Jenga, Super Mario, Spit. I’m even training my daughter to decimate her father and grandmother in Scrabble. We don’t love these games because we can win. It’s not the competition we enjoy. It’s playing.   You will find that the old adage is true. “It’s not whether you win or loose…it’s how you play the game”.

Never forget to play hard and have fun doing it. What do you like to play?

Bree

Bryony Sheppard, majored in theater education at Emerson College and is currently studying for her master’s degree in educational psychology. She is a preschool teacher near Princeton, NJ and spends much of her time coming up with new fun and exciting ways to entertain and educate. When she isn’t studying or writing lesson plans, she loves spending time with her husband and two beautiful children.