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When I last visited The Magical Creatures — we played a bunch of games. The oldest one is fond of Scrabble. It’s been ‘Our Game’ for a couple of years now. I’ve been teaching her strategy and she usually beats me. It can be close — or it can be a blowout.
My Middle Magical Creature is learning how to play chess. It’s a grown-up kind of game and she plays with everyone — including her older sister and her dad. We started playing at Thanksgiving and when I went back in December, I was amazed at how much she had learned. She took my queen on a regular and made me work hard for every single check and checkmate.
My Youngest Magical Creature is just learning to read and has an obsessive love of all things Princess. Santa indulged her with several new twists on old favorites. We played Princess Trouble, Princess Matching cards, Princess Candyland, and her tried-but-true-Princess-block game. She usually wins.
And they all beat me playing Mastermind. All. Of. Them. Every. Time.
Not only are games with The Magical Creatures helping me to keep my brain active — it is allowing me to exercise patience. Patience to teach strategy. Patient to wait for their next move. Patience to look up every weird jumble of words that may or may not be in the official Scrabble dictionary. Patience to just sit…
