| While shopping for some games as Angel Tree | | | | When the weather was good and we could play |
| gifts, I came to realize that so many games | | | | outdoors, we would entertain ourselves with a |
| today are electronic games. It made me begin to | | | | neighborhood baseball or softball game or we |
| think back to my own childhood days and the | | | | would take a stick and draw out a hop scotch |
| games that we used to play. | | | | game in the dirt or a sandy area. |
| Since we were poor a lot of our games were | | | | We lived in a rural area and our preference was |
| free or very inexpensive to play. I remember | | | | to play outdoors. We would take walks in the |
| that one of our favorite indoor games was to | | | | woods and go down to the nearby swimming hole |
| play a card game named "Go Fishing" or "Go Fish". | | | | on a hot day. |
| It is usually played with two to five players. | | | | Today kids start out as very small children with |
| Usually both the adults and the kids would join in a | | | | learning DVDs, TV entertainment and as they |
| Go Fish game. | | | | grow there are all the video games that eat up |
| Using a standard card deck, 7 cards are dealt to | | | | hours and hours of their time. |
| each of the players. The rest of the deck is | | | | That's not to say that these games cannot be |
| spread out in the center of the table. The first | | | | shared between the adults and children. For |
| player will ask another player to give them their | | | | instance, the Mario Kart Wii is a game that is |
| cards of a particular rank. For example, "Give me | | | | loved by the racing fan dad as much as the kids. |
| all your Queens". The requesting player cannot | | | | Learning DVDs can help the child with getting a |
| ask for a card that they are not holding in their | | | | head start on things like their A-B-Cs before they |
| own hand. | | | | even start to kinder care. |
| If the player asked has any cards of the | | | | And even before that, the parents can get an |
| requested rank, they hand them over and the | | | | entertaining DVD that helps the child learn potty |
| requesting player earns another turn. If the player | | | | training. |
| asked does not have any cards of the requested | | | | Little girls still get dolls; they are just more |
| rank, they say "go fish" or "go fishing". The | | | | sophisticated. Dolls today are almost like a real |
| requesting player then draws a card from the | | | | baby. Families years ago had so many children |
| pool in the center of the table. | | | | that I guess we just had the real thing to learn |
| When a player has four cards of a given rank, | | | | from about what babies really do. |
| then they have "a book" and they place that | | | | Little boys still get toy trucks but I guess you |
| book face up in front of them on the table. When | | | | don't have to really push them by hand anymore. |
| a player runs out of cards they draw a card from | | | | There is nothing overly good or bad about the old |
| the pool and the game continues until all cards are | | | | and the present, however it is sometimes fun to |
| gone from the pool. At that time the games ends | | | | just look back and compare. It's even fun to |
| and the player with the most books wins. | | | | share with your kids some of the older games |
| We had several different card games that we | | | | and play them together. |
| could play with that same deck of cards. | | | | |