I've written before about my lifelong love of Scrabble, and how my aunt taught me to play when I was very young. She soundly trounced me for literally thousands of games over the course of about 15 years, before I got skilled enough to beat her.
It's a tradition I've continued, first with my own stepson, T., and now with my newest student, our girl Kate's little boy, Captain-Man. Katiebug and the good captain were down for a visit this weekend.
High on the Captain's agenda was us playing Scrabble Junior, which his mom was good enough to get for him.
There's our first game, in progress. (I'm the one with the bigger, hairier legs.)
I was pleasant surprised by just how much Cap already knows. He's very clear on his consonants versus vowels, and he was able to read the words on the board without much help on my part. Once I showed him the tactical advantage to looking for words he could complete, especially words of his own color (which give two points in Scrabble Junior), he was on the case.
And he won.
OK, I'll admit, I consciously avoided plays where I could have taken points from him. I didn't outright throw the game, but I was very generous. (C'mon, he's 5. What am I, a monster?)
He loved it. Later in the weekend, we played a four person game with Missy, and his mom. He came in third that time, and lost gracefully, which also pleased me. (And just for the record, I came in second, so put a sock in it. Kate won. She was great.)
I strongly suspect that our playing this game each visit, and ultimately graduating to the blank board version of it (on the other side of the board) is in our future, and that it won't even be long. His eyes lit up when we played in a way I recognize.
I am looking forward to his becoming a formidable player.