Games – Buckle Buckle Mr. Bean

We continue to play "Buckle, Buckle Mr. Bean" at our house.  Last night Michael, Alice, Betty and I played it while their mom was engaged in the game, Arboretum, with Aunt Bonnie.  

“The moms are going to play a board game for the next few minutes in the living room.  No children.”  

Those are the words said by Aunt Bonnie and those words left 3 chagrined children looking almost bereft to be left behind in the kitchen.  Even tablet time wasn’t enough to fill the early evening sorrow of being cut out of the lives of those two women for the time it takes to play a board game. 

I left the other 2 children behind  in the kitchen and took Betty to my bedroom to sing, “Come All You Play Mates”, a song based on a popular song of 1894: H.W. Petrie’s “I Don’t Want to Play in Your Yard”.  (Interested folk can find the song at #169 of Sally Go Round the Sun.) 

My mother taught that song to me; now I teach it to my grandchild.  But just one for she is the only one whom I think I can interest with it.  When I had mined all of the time out of Betty’s interest that I think she can give, I take her back to be with the other kids.

There I turn to read from the Secwepemc Lands and Resources book of Indigenous stories, to the story of “Coyote and Fox”. 

“Dumb story”, said Michael after the first 2 paragraphs.  I agree with him, but only dumb because I haven’t practised reading it – it was a cold call for me, and I agreed with him (poor performance) and kept reading until the end of the story.  “Tomorrow I will try to make sense of this story”, I thought.  But with all of the strangeness of the story, I did keep Betty and Alice by my side, listening to its end.  So I gave myself 100% on engagement, if not performance.

... 1 1/4 inches wide ...
... representing another world of truth ...

Then I remembered how often the children ask to play Buckle, Buckle, Mr. Bean. 

They will play it all day if they have an adult with them.  

Betty still has to have an adult in the room with her when she hides the object of my choice: the bronze Witness Blanket Coin.  

It is just a little bigger than a toonie, though not as shiny.  I choose that object so as to get it into their hands, trying to imprint some ideas about Witness Blanket Theory, I think to myself, though I am pushing the point.

Betty still has to be coached to hide the coin in a place where all can see it.  “Betty, can you see the coin yourself, right now?” 

The answer is no.  She has dropped it inside of a roll of masking tape which is too high on the kitchen counter for her to see herself.

“Then let’s try another place.”

She can hardly stand it when Michael and Alice join her in the room and start their search.  She can’t even give them 30 seconds before she starts coaching, “You’re getting warmer, warmer,” even though they aren’t even close to the coin, nor have they asked for her help.

The best part of the game is that it keeps all of their interest and they have forgotten that their mother and favourite aunt are on the other side of the kitchen door, having their own fun.

Thank you, thank you, "Buckle, Buckle, Mr. Bean" (or as my family of origin used to call the game, "You’re Getting Warmer, Now Colder").

~ Arta