5 Year Old Surprises

I called my brother's family last night about playing our new board game in the garage as it would be fairly warm to be outside.   I knew if we had any hope of finishing the game, I'd need to give my 5 year old nephew some attention first.  I asked them about going to the playground and they said, "Which playground?"

I gave them two choices and they both wanted to go to the one at their school.  "After we'll come back and play Wingspan."

"Candyland!" My nephew yelled in the background. 

"Ok, first we'll play Candyland, then Wingspan."

Today the 3 of us walked to their school.  It was endearing to hear my nephew, who is in kindergarten point out to me where the cafeteria windows are etc.  And it was nice to be near them in a more relaxed way (this winter we've only been together outdoors so we've had to be moving to be warm).

We played at the park for an hour and half and then headed home to play the games.

 My nephew and I started with Candyland.  He went thru the deck of cards and pulled out all the double colors and put them in his own pile.  So he moved very quickly and it turned out to be the shortest Candyland game I've played.

Then we set up Wingspan.  He said he wanted to play, I was highly doubtful he'd last long since he didn't even play Candyland correctly, so I said we could be a team. 

There are 4 rounds in the game and after round 1 my brother said, "When does this game get fun?"

"If you aren't having fun just stop playing." So my brother was out, but the 5 year old was still beside me.

Not only that,

he lasted the entire game, enthusiastically. He was excited about different birds, and though on occasion and in the end I did direct our strategy.  For the most part I let him decide what we should do and we still only trailed the winner by a couple points.  

For the second time in a row - it is the less than 10 years old that have taught me how to play, how to play a board game and simply have fun.

I still cannot believe that I was concerned we wouldn't be able to focus on the game because he'd get bored and want attention.  It was his father instead.

And  not only that, but he said he really wanted to borrow the game.