Evolution of a Gamer

If you ask me, the best part of having children is watching them learn. You get to see the lightbulb moment a lot. If teaching had paid more reasonably, I'd have probably been a teacher, because I enjoy that moment a lot. At any rate, my son asked to play Ticket to Ride yesterday (more accurately, he did not ask, he simply got it out and set it up and got caught). At any rate, he couldn't remember exactly how we played, so I re-explained it. I also introduced tickets this time (we had previously played without any tickets). I gave my son 1 ticket and explained that if he made the route connecting the two places on his ticket, he'd get the points on the card. He immediately understood the idea and went to work. Of course, his focus was on doing the links in order, but he did a good job and it focused his decisions on which cards to take. Once he completed the ticket, I offered him two more tickets and let him pick which he wanted. Of course, the one he wanted was the bigger point value ticket. this was the Seattle to Montreal route, which I eventually had to point out to him that he didn't have to do them in order (he had a lot of black cards he needed for a link, but was planning to use them for a neutral route). When I told him, he looked at the board a little, and then BAM! the light went on and he got it. I imagine he'll have a little less tunnel vision the next time around. Still, I love playing games with him, because I love showing him something (whether I show him, or beat him with a tactic in game) because he usually gets it and can incorporate or adjust to it.