The best toy

I've always believed that if you don't use it, you lose it. Never more true than with your brain! My family has always been game players! When we were very little, my mom would pair us up and with pencils we'd create these crazy squiggly messes on scrap paper. Then we'd have to take crayons or colored pencils and color in animals or pictures we found within those squiggly messes. With five kids and friend's kids always around, there was a plethora of board games available to us as we got older. And then . . . the word games!  (Cue the daunting music . . . dah, dah, dah!)

We played the 4 x 4 Boggle til we grew bored of that and then graduated to the 5 x 5. We had, I would guess, every edition of Scrabble that graced the store shelves. We played the dictionary game which most folks call something else these days, but I would never stray from the original. We did Upwords and loved to do those puzzles where you had a great big word and you had to find as many smaller words within it. I ruled those!

I enjoyed the crossword puzzles, but was not ever very good at them. Too broad a scope of knowledge to be real good. The were the coded puzzles that I could never quite conquer but my mom was a whiz at. It was always time to tax the old noodle; keep the juices flowing, and think, think, think!

One of my most vivid memories of games we played was one of the most fun. With nine people in the car, it would usually start with the driver and work it's way to the back of the vehicle. My step-dad would say something like, "Jimmy was going to have a party, but he was undecided about . . . " and then my mom would have to pick it up and continue the story. She would say, "whether he should invite Beth or Sarah, so instead of making a choice . . ." and brother Cal would chime in, "he decided to go fishing. He gathering up his tackle and . . ." And so on and so forth. Most of these stories meandered forever through absolutely nothing logical but all kinds of laughter and silliness. You could make up anything you wanted. It is a GREAT game for young children, without the use of joysticks, videos, or remote controls. It makes 'em use their imagination . . . the best toy out there!

Go play today!