Crystal Game

My son still is resisting reading that one book he needs to read in order to get screens back.   He had said at the beginning of all this that he was never going to do screens again.  He can be very dramatic, like all children when they're upset and not getting their way.   But as time goes on, he's not even trying, and while that's odd, it's not been a bad thing at home. 

He has taken a renewed interest in drawing and his skills are increasing every week.   After school, if his friend Rayan can't play in the yard, he goes to the bonus room, turns on an audiobook, and gets to work on something intricate or game-related.   There are a lot of game-based drawings he's been doing.  

Tonight, when I found him after dinner, he had been working on drawing up a game layout he had created on the floor with the crystal pendants he, his sister, and two friends got from Amazon for an astoundingly reasonable price.   These crystals have been the source of many hours of play.  Tonight, they were each the next step in the game, room in the dungeon, level to pass, spell to learn (he was non-specific when I asked but I think it's along some or all of those lines).  

Here's what he laid out, nicely organized by color.   He created and then precisely cut one square sections from his graph paper and laid out all the spaces.   The LEGO pieces mean something as well.   He told me you start at one and then showed me how, if you got to one of the end sections, you'd be able to take shortcuts.   He was going to work on that next, but he had it all in his mind. 

The thing that made me sad was he had to clean it up because his sister has class at home tomorrow and she was going to inadvertently step all over it.   He understood and then copied everything down on another sheet before going to bed.   

The Big Boy Update:  My son was interested in showing me the game he was planning after school.  I asked if there was anything I might have that I could contribute to the game.  He wasn't sure but when I reminded him of the crystals I had kept in a tiny drawer in the craft room, he said he would like them.   I'm glad I mentioned them because he created an impressive layout and game plan with them.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  One of the students in my daughter's class has COVID-19.  Her teacher and all students who sat near him have been sent home for two weeks or until after track out.  We're fortunate in that my daughter was at home after the headache incident last week while all this was happening.  Still, to be safe, we got another COVID-19 test today.   That's three tests in a week for my daughter.  One that was the wrong kind and would not be accepted by her school, the second that was and then today's in the case for any reason she was exposed the last day the other student was at school but she wasn't positive when tested.