I guess that idea of fun and learning combined is one I inherited from my Granny. My mother and Aunt Mary have been cleaning out Granny's house in preparation to put it on the market. It has been an emotional and physically exhausting job for them. Each of the grandchildren have been graced with treasures passed along as they dispense with all of Granny's stuff. Sometimes it is all in your perspective as to whether something is a treasure or not.
All my life I have heard my mother and Aunt Mary tell stories about playing with their Author Cards. Granny bought a set of playing cards for them when they were little girls. It seems she thought it would help them learn their numbers, categorizing, sportsmanship, and a bit about famous authors.
They tell about how their younger brother could not hold all his cards fanned out in his fist when he was a little tyke. So, he would go into a bedroom and lay his hand of cards out on the bed to sort them and see what he had.
The sisters tell that they are certain that when Granny would see them playing she would feel like she was encouraging communication skills, collaborative skills, teamwork, and more because she would smile as she did her housework and they were playing cooperatively.
Then, there was the day that she realized maybe the cards were not quite achieving what she had hoped...
The girls were playing with the Author Cards. It seems they had a hard time pronouncing the names of some of the authors... Nathaniel Hawthorne, for example. So, they simply created nicknames for the various authors and referenced them as such from time to time. On this particular playtime, Granny walked by their game just as one of them asked the other if she had any "Old Shitty-heads" (referencing Nathaniel Hawthorne).
Can you imagine Granny's disappointment?
THE FAMOUS AUTHOR CARDS
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