Lifeskills Through Games

The Sprit Of Discovery

- Dr. Jeyakar Vedamanickam

The list of values and skills that we want children to imbibe seems never ending. And yet, day to day parenting cannot comprise long sessions of advice, preaching or tutoring. There are other interesting ways and means to sensitise children and open up new avenues of thinking. Playing games is a sureshot way to have fun as a family while doing one’s job as a parent! We begin this new series of articles written in a story format by Dr. Jeyakar Vedamanickam. Each of the episodes will entertain you with the lively narratives of a ‘typical’ family. Don’t miss any in this series!

One of the important abilities that contribute to creativity is the ability to discover. This involves exploring and searching, raising questions and seeking answers to these and piecing together the information that has been gathered.

The ‘Hide and Seek’ game played by young children sharpens skill to search and uncover objects in the physical world. To develop the ability to discover abstract concepts, one plays other forms of ‘Hide and Seek’ games.The Coffee-pot is one such game that sharpens one’s ability to discover.

To play Coffee-pot one volunteer stays out of ear-shot distance while the group decides on a verb that is ‘hidden’ from the volunteer. For instance, the verb may be ‘wink’, ‘scratch’ or ‘snore’. The task for the volunteer is to seek this ‘hidden verb’, referred to as ‘Coffee-pot’.The volunteer asks a series of questions, so framed that they may be answered by a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’. Sometimes the question may be answered with a ‘don’t know’, ‘may be’ or some such response to be as truthful and accurate as possible.

Observe the game in play in the short story ‘Mystery around the Coffee Pot’.