Every now and then, I approach Susie Ma’am and ask if she has anything fun to share.
Today, she shared a little about her Friendship Games. This summer, she has a slew of odd items on our window sill. When a cabin visits our house, she asks each girl to pick an item and share a story. She then asks the girls to play a game of “True or False”. The rules of this game are simple. Each girl shares a story that is interesting and plausibly autobiographical.The cabinmates then get to decide whether the story is true or false.
The contrast between the older girls and the younger ones could not be more striking. The oldest campers are adept at choosing banal topics that could easily be true.
“This dog lease reminds me of the time I went to the park and my dog’s leash broke and we spent 3 hours chasing her around the neighborhood.”
- That is a solidly believable story. It is also not particularly compelling. I think this one was false, but it is hard to get excited about it.
Now the Minis (the 7-9 year-olds) are the exact opposite. Their stories are marvelous, funny and riveting.
But, they might be a tad lacking in believability.
Susie reports a staggering number of unicorns, ogres, castles and time travel in their creative, playful tales.
What makes this even better is that the girls seem more than willing to consider the possibility that the time-traveling ogre story might actually be real. These tales are not instantly relegated to the “False” category. Instead, the fun-loving girls begin a discussion that seems open to the idea that a camper from Houston might have joined a monster for an adventure.
Of course, Susie loves these exchanges. In fact, she has decided to toss out the whole True or False game with the Minis and is challenging them to concoct especially creative and unique stories.
She assures me that they are rising to the occasion.
Off to bed and more adventures tomorrow.
Steve Sir
Want more like this? See: http://blog.campchampions.com/miss-champini-and-mr-beiber
