One, two, three, four, I declare … Poke War???
I’ve known the children to arm wrestle, play hide and seek, dress up in costumes and create imaginary games of all sorts. We play board games and card games of all sorts. The kids love sword fights and full scale battles with toy soldiers. Poke War, however, is a new one to me.
Further investigation reveals Joshua is the initiator of this intriguing game. He learned it at church middle school (of course) and brought it straight home to his siblings (of course).
Now, whenever the children have a dull moment (and they’re not outside playing catch) they can be found playing Poke War. The specifics of the game are as follows:
1) Find victim (I mean opponent)
2) Grasp hands – index finger extended
3) Twist and turn – testing opponents strength
4) Try various maneuvers with the goal of poking your opponent anywhere except the arms or head
5) Continue twisting and spinning until one person is poked
6) Convince Mom the person crying isn’t really hurt
7) Declare victory and find another victim
So far no one has been seriously injured or wounded. The kids are strangely well matched. Daniel is wiry and quick to spin and turn. Joshua uses brute force (“You ARE the Brute Squad”) but plays by the rules and doesn’t get too rough with the younger children. Rachel is very strong and has those long nails which are a bit intimidating. I’m not sure where David fits in, strength/power wise, but he’s definitely NOT going to be left out.
As a mother, who has a vested interest (ie has to pay medical bills) in the children remaining in one piece, the game SOUNDS horrible. There is much shoving and pushing and laughing and rough-housing. If that isn’t a recipe for trouble, I don’t know what is. Perhaps it looks and sounds worse than it really is, and it’s all just fun and games. Of course, it’s called Poke War so I’m not sure the intent is necessarily all that benign.
Anybody up for a game? Just don’t tell them you learned it here.
Kathy
Sounds like good exercise and a good way to learn kindness to smaller ones. Sometimes.
Ha. Happy Day to all of you. AK
It turns out that this is more complicated than a simple test of strength. I tried using brute force against Joshua, and (as I stood over him, forcing my index finger into his abdomen) was stealthily ‘poked’ in the foot by my wily opponent. Clearly I must learn to strategize … I’m thinking of organizing a competition here at work. Who wouldn’t want a chance to vanquish their manager, or see them flop around on the floor to avoid a poke?
It even sounds fun enough for me to want to try it. Maybe I should try it with Dave, though, after the kids are in bed!
Rachel – definitely a grown up version of this game would be VERY interesting.
This is a new one to me but it made for a very fun post!
Okay, Kathy, after reading one of your blog entries, we bought the Snoopy and the Red Baron game, now I have a house full of WWI flying Aces. Even my hubby loves this game. Not sure I want to share the Poke War game with them! Yikes, I can invision lots of tears in this house. It sounds sort of fun, though.
Jodi – this is new to me as well. I guess it’s sort of a version of arm wrestling and thumb war sort of morphed together. Somehow it’s fun and they (mostly) don’t get hurt. Ha!
Debbie – no way!! You guys bought the Snoopy Game! How fun. Look, I’ve inspired a family all the way in NY to add more Peanuts to their lives. Ha!! I’m glad they are having fun with it. My kids are crazy about it. I get a wee bit tired of the bam, bam, bam sounds but I can usually get them to turn it down when necessary.