Claire's Question Game

In Claire's preschool class they play a lot of "question" games. For instance "Do you like fish?" Then the kids stick their name tags under the "yes" column or "no" column. Or the teacher will ask, "How many marbles are in the jar?" and the kids give their best estimate.

Well, Claire *loves* these games, and she has been introducing the concept here at home. She walks around with a notebook and pen, ready to fire some questions at us.

She doesn't go for the easy questions, either. No. Her questions are pretty... challenging. For example:

I don't even bother trying to figure out what she's talking about--I just throw out a number. Kate takes a wild guess too.

But Jack likes to give it an honest go, and begins calculating an answer grounded in reality.

That's all well and good, but I sense that Claire doesn't really have the right answer. So why bother trying to figure it out?

She recently asked us:

Me: "What do you mean? Gallons?"

Claire: "No, how much water!"

Me: "Water is measured in gallons."

Claire: "No."

That's all. Just "no."

I gave up that battle and just answered: "Three."

Kate yelled: "Ten!"

Claire thought about it...

Then she announced:

Five what? I have no idea.

She firmly claims that she is "not making the answers up," but I have my suspicions. For instance, one recent question was:

Easy enough. She has two blankies - one yellow, one pink.

But no! She revealed that...

Yes, the fictional red blanket that no one has ever heard of! Obviously that is the right answer.

Things like this get Kate really worked up. But in the face of these challenges, Claire stands firm.

After a while, I pretty much give up even trying to guess.

But this usually backfires as well, much to Kate's horror.

Every time I win (which is a lot), Claire makes me a "winning thing." A medal. A trophy. A certificate. They are cute, but they really start to pile up, and sometimes they are quite large. So I have to "weed them out" by filing them in the "circular file" if you get my drift.

Then, inevitably, Claire will appear next to me demanding to know:

That sends me on a fun digging excursion, where I encounter coffee grounds, banana peels, chewed gum and other lovely material.

Another thing she does with these games is add rules on the fly. One recent rule heavily favored the first responder. She informed us that: "You can't guess the same answer." Then she asked:

Kate of course said "January 12." Then Claire reminded us of the new rule.

I'm not going to lie - it makes it tough for the second person. But those are the rules, so what are you going to do? (Answer quickly, that's what.)

Recently Claire added an even more perplexing element into her game. Family members get points for... well, we don't know what. It's all very secretive. Out of nowhere, Claire will say, "Let's see who has the most points!" Then she will run over to her notebook. Kate will follow closely behind.

Claire will refer to a page full of nonsensical chicken scratches, then declare:

So far Kate has yet to win anything. She also has yet to give up. Even when it's clear that Claire is sabotaging her chances of winning, Kate still plays -- and remains serious about winning.

Behold this recent exchange:

By this time, I'm back at the "circle file" trying to manage my "winning things."

And Jack? He's still trying to figure out how many rattlesnakes are in cornland.