Recently I read the above quote and immediately thought of my friends who teach young kids...and the kids themselves. This week in my class just proved that invention is alive and well.
Since it's Easter, we've been talking about Jesus and some of the things He did. We had a "stick game" which is a variation (or even just the same as) the game pick-up sticks. I put letters on the sticks and put them in a plastic can. (My wife just started buying me this coffee and the cans--with lids--are too good to toss.) We would pour out the sticks and then would take turns trying to pick up one stick without moving any of the others. It's harder than it seems (especially for my larger hands!). After all the sticks were picked up, we would spell Jesus' name or sort the sticks by letter.
Later in the day, kids began to invent some other games to play. I saw two girls holding sticks, all fanned out like cards. "What are you playing?" I asked. "Jesus Old Maid," they answered. I'm not sure exactly how to play that, but it did look interesting.
Other kids were choosing sticks from each other to match or grouping the sticks in other ways. Even though is happens on an almost weekly basis, I'm still amazed at the inventiveness and creativity of young kids. Personally, I don't think I would ever have thought of playing "Jesus Old Maid" with a group of craft sticks.
