Zipper’s Trip to Zimbabwe

My daughter loves to play word games.   She makes some of them up, while others she hears about from other people such as her teachers.  She's always good at any verbal game because firstly, she's very verbal but secondly, she isn't distracted by all that pesky vision the rest of us have to contend with.  This gives her more focus on the important things, like who went where on what.

The game, as she first introduced me to it, was a travel game.   You would be going to a place, travelling o a thing.   The first person started with the letter A and would, for instance, go to Alabama on an antelope.  The second person would pick up with B, going to Billy's house in a buggy.   The game proceeded until the end of the alphabet was reached. 

This was a fun way for my daughter to end her VI meetings while giving her practice typing on her braillewriter.   She would say and type her answer and then her teacher would do the same on her own braillewriter.   The game translated beautifully to distanced learning as they took turns and could each type at their own end. 

My daughter got my son interested in the game a week or so back on our way to school.  Initially, he had no interest in playing but after a few letters, he jumped in.   There were variants of this game such as things you'd take on a camping trip (the more ridiculous the thing, the better). 

Tonight, my daughter wanted to jump in the trampoline with me and play 'popcorn,' her favorite game in which you try to jump as hard as you can around her balled up body until she breaks form.   I started the game while we played, saying when it was your turn on the mat, balled up, you had to think fast and call out who you were, where you were going and how you'd be getting there.  You kept going until you lost hold of your legs.

We took turns until we got to the end of the alphabet at which point we had to go inside.   She ended with her favorite cat, Zipper, going to Zimbabwe on a zebra.   

The Big Boy Update:  When I picked up my son from school today the first thing I said was, "we've got a bit of an emergency" to which  he immediately replied, "we have to hurry home because you have groceries that need to be put in the refrigerator."   He'd noticed the bags and knew what that meant.   I told him it was mostly the ice cream he and his sister had been asking us to get.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles: We had to sweep out the trampoline tonight.   It was dark when we were jumping, which didn't affect my daughter in any way.   She noticed what I couldn't see: that the trampoline was covered with leaves and small particles from the wind.    I told her we'd be on lightning game round while I swept: the first one who came up with a full set of who/where/how would call it out as fast as they could.   You couldn't call out an answer until you had all the information.   She's fast, we were about even on letters by the time I'd gotten done sweeping the trampoline deck.