Playing together

Back in December, Santa came to my son's school.  It is quite a fun day for the kids.  The choir of moms, including me, sang for the kids during an assembly.  Santa came to visit and presented each kid with a present.  The reindeer even left chunks of ice as they took off from the playground (more evidence of the sled and reindeer were the sled tracks though the yard).

Each of the second year students received a card game from Santa.  My son brought it home and eagerly opened it.  The game, Karuta, helps kids practice their listening skills as well as learn their hiragana characters.  Versions of Karuta have been played in Japan since the 16th century.  We promptly put the game on the shelf and forgot about it.

This morning, I was practicing my hiragana characters with my son and he mentioned the game.  As soon as my husband came downstairs, we pulled it out and asked him to help us play.

There are two sets of cards - grabbing cards and reading cards.  We spread all the grabbing cards out on the floor.  On each card, there is a picture with a character up in the corner.  One person is chosen to be the reader.  For us this will be the best Japanese reader in our house - my husband.  The reader reads the sentences printed on each of the reading cards.  The players - my son and I - listen to the first character in the sentence and race to find the matching card.  Whoever slaps the correct card first gets to keep the card.  Whoever has the most cards when all of the cards are grabbed, wins.

We had so much fun playing again and again.  On the one hand, it is a shame that it has taken this long for us to play.  But on the other hand, I have a perfect match for my hiragana skills!  So, I'm glad we waited for an even playing field.