French and Indian War

Okay, when was that? And who fought who? Honestly, I don't really remember much. But Matthew is learning about that in his second grade class. So he came home today all hyped about wanting to act out a battle scene. He had me find a colonial scout costume for himself, indian costume for Ethan, general for me. Then we played war. This all sounds so easy, but let me assure you there was PLENTY of drama involved.



Matthew is learning how to "get along" and "play nice" with other people so that other people will want to play with him. Because I have to admit, there were about five times tonight that if I were any less mature than my 34 years, I would have said, "Fine, I quit! I'm not playing with you!" But, I mustered all the good nature I had left at the end of a long day, and a little more borrowed from prayer, and calmly kept it light and playful to avoid him bursting into tears. You see, he has a picture in his mind of how a game is supposed to go, and everyone must act according to that picture, or else they've ruined it. HE can make up rules as he goes along, but no one else can. Everyone else can and must be injured or die throughout the game, but he will never die, and above all else, HE must always win. Yeah. NOT. I had to kindly help him see that games just aren't fun for other people if they never get to win, or if the other guy never pretends to die, or if Matt always tells them everything to do.

(What Ethan often looks like after interacting with Matthew):




So, I sort of set up a little scenario where Matt was up in his fort, Ethan (the indian) crept up under cover of dark, and made some noise to lure the colonial scouts out of their safeplace. Then, once they were out, he led them toward me and we ambushed them and fought hand to hand. This was more fun, because Matthew had the rifle (extendable grabber) and was just shooting us from afar. All we had were arrows (those orange Hot Wheels track pieces) and tomahawks (plastic pirates cutlasses). Hand to hand combat was more fun. I had to kind of give Matt a nod a few times to remind him to keel over, but he got better at it, and it all went pretty well, until Ethan accidentally whipped him in the eye with a net. Matt screamed. I cried, "Man down, man down. I think he's lost an eye!" Matt recognized my melodrama and said, "No, I've still got my eye, Mom." "Whew, disaster averted." (The real disaster averted was distracting Matthew from destroying Ethan on the spot)!



After that risky and frankly exhausting adventure, I was more than ready to put them in bed. Make no mistake, I did not do all that with a purely willing, happy, motherly heart. No, I wanted to send those tiny louts to their beds as soon as we got back from scouts, but I felt obligated to feed them first. I fed them yesterday. Here they're back for more. I bet they'll do it again tomorrow, even. Predictable little ingrates. hahahaha Ooh, I better go to bed earlier tonight.