The other day, J decided to teach the kids Rock, Paper, Scissors. This wasn’t just a whim. We were stuck at LenCrafters waiting for their computers to come back up so she could finish buying a pair of glasses.

So she decided to try to teach Rock, Paper, Scissors. C’s almost 4 now, and it’s a completely new game to him. While I played with his little brother, she started out teaching him the hand gestures (”this is rock, this is paper, this is scissors”) and then moved on to explaining that scissors beats paper, which beats rock, which beats scissors.

By the end of her explanation, he was just staring at her, with one of those “I’m sorry, was I supposed to be paying attention?” looks.

So she started trying to get him to make the gestures with his hand. Unfortunately, making “scissors” proved to be fairly difficult. Finally, he took matters into his own hands.

“No, no, no. I know a different game!”

“What?”

“Yeah, a better game. It’s ‘Rock, Eyeglasses, Tree’”

J and I looked at each other. “Rock, Eyeglasses, Tree?”

“Yep. And first you do this.” He shook his fist up and like the beginning motions of Rock, Paper, Scissors. “And then you do this” he stuck his fist out.

J was trying hard not to laugh. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah, and then you – TAG!” He poked her in the shoulder.

I have to admit, it does sound like an improvement over Rock, Paper, Scissors.