Share and share alike

By April on 26th September, 2008

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I was reading this post at Simple Mom today about brothers and sisters sharing a room. I left this comment:

My two oldest kids are about 2.5 years apart, my daughter being older than my son. They originally shared a room because of space but as they got older and we moved into a bigger house, they could’ve had their own rooms but they didn’t want to. In fact, they did have their own rooms and yet they would still end up sleeping in the same room, one of them sneaking into the other’s after I’d put them to bed.
So for years they had a bedroom and a playroom, probably up until they were ages 9 and 7. They are now 18 and almost 16 and they’re still extremely close.

I had forgotten all about that until I was writing that comment. Sissy and Bubba grew up sharing just about everything – a bedroom, a playroom, toys.

And then I realized that Princess won’t have that same experience. Since her siblings are so much older than she is, she doesn’t have to share much with them other than the TV, the Play Station or the computer.

Now I don’t want her growing up to be spoiled, selfish or stingy. (Ok, it might be a little too late on the spoiled thing.) I want her to be compassionate, giving, and willing to share with others.

Luckily, I’ve discovered a fun way to do this. Hasbro has this new series of games out called Noodleboro, one of which is the ‘Learning to Share’ Fun Park. She has a blast playing this. Its not just a regular ol’ board game. The layout of the game includes a carnival style layout with 4 different stations. The goal is to win prizes from each game and if you win more than one of a certain kind of prize, you earn a star by sharing your extra prize with another player who doesn’t have one.

The best thing about it is that there is no “winner.” The point of the game is for the entire group to collect enough stars before the sun goes down and the park closes. So rather than putting player against player, the players are working as a team.

We’ve had a lot of fun with this game. Of course, there have been times where we don’t worry about collecting the prizes and the stars; we just play with the little carnival games.

Oh, and if your child doesn’t have any problems sharing – meaning they’ve outgrown the “Mine!” stage – then you might want to try the other Noodleboro games. There’s the “Learning About Manners” Picnic Basket game and the “Learning to Listen” Pizza Palace game.