The Games Kindergartners Play

Nate is very enthusiastic about the games he is learning in gym class.  Today they played my personal kindergarten favorite, Duck Duck Goose.  Nate was eager to play at home with Jonah and me and was unperturbed by his lack of ducking options.  Jonah, of course, is eager to play any game that involves chasing and potentially shrieking, so there was a lot of running and shrieking fun around here tonight.  At school, Nate reported, he got to be the ducker twice, and one time he made it back to his seat, and the other time, he had to go into the goose area (I could have sworn we called that the mush pot, but maybe that is an East Coast thing, like bubblers and "husha, husha" instead of "ashes, ashes").

Nate also played a game called Monsters in the Closet.  Accordingly to Nate, you run around with a hoop and make a lot of noise, and when the caller calls "Monsters in the Closet!" you stop and get inside your hoop.  In rounds subsequent to the first, you apparently run with the hoop already around you, the better to be in the hoop, or so Nate's playing indicated.  Yes, it makes no sense.  But it was fun.  He's also fond of Red Light, Green Light, Simon Says, and a variation on a song I remember from camp that has him attempting to sing "Atoostacha, atoostacha" while spinning in a circles with his thumbs up, elbows back, knees bent, bottom up, head back, eyes closed, and tongue out.  It is very cute.

Jonah and I went bowling today!  Mondays are our special day together, with no work and no preschool, and he gets to pick the activity.  He was very excited to play "the bowling game."  After getting his ball stuck 4 times by rolling it too slowly, he wisely decided to take a teamwork approach, and it did not in fact take 3 days to finish two games.  We had a great time.  He also picked out his Spiderman Halloween costume, tried it on, and, upon seeing himself with giant fake muscles in the mirror, let out the manliest grunt I have ever heard, with a huge smile on his face.

Nate is also learning some basic survival skills at his new school.  Today he came out after school holding hands with Gracie, his sweet little line partner this week, and also the only kid in the class who is even tinier than Nate.  Nate was wearing his backpack.  Gracie was wearing her backpack and also carrying Nate's lunchbox.  "Nate, why is Grace carrying your lunchbox?" I asked.  "It was too heavy for him to carry with his backpack," she answered for him, "so I'm carrying it for him."  Nate beamed.  So which is lovlier: that he had a tiny little girl carrying his lunchbox for him, or that, after he "ate" his lunch, it was still so heavy that he couldn't carry it?

Comments

[Marsha]

I think I know the "knees bent, eyes closed" thing, but I think we said "a-roo-ga-chuck-a" But who can remember? And I don't recall a goose area/mush pot at all. But my Duck Duck Goose days are long behind me.

[Matt]

"Mush pot" was common use in Texas as well, including a chant of "Mush pot! Mush pot! (Name) goes to the mush pot!", and there were many variants of Duck Duck Goose, including "Pac Man Pac Man Ghost," which invariably involved running around making "wacka-wacka" sounds.

[Andrea]

Thank you, Matt--I always enjoy proof that I'm not crazy!

[Krista]

It's "duck duck Ray duck" in MN. Who woulda thunk all the variations there could be?

[Genevieve]

We had a mush pot, Andrea. But we sang "ashes, ashes". No comment on the bubbler - you know that's a very specific regional thing (so I learned about them in college along with cabinets).

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