So for Superhero Adventure, what we normally do is play pretend as superheroes together. This time, due to the Pokemadness that has descended upon our house, I had said it would be a Pokemon adventure. But I had a plan to try and get the kids to subtly learn about cleaning up their toys.
Lyric, modeling the pokebelt
The kids had gotten Pokebelts on Lyric's birthday last week, so we strapped them on and started hunting through the house for loose Pokèmon figures and cards. My plan was to show them how we could thoroughly look through a bin or a box, empty out all the contents (and subtly separate out the junk while doing so), and then IMMEDIATELY put it all back and leave it clean. Every so often we'd find a Pokèmon figure and I'd tell the kids to throw it in their pokeballs.
Zephyr goes to capture a Torchick in a pokeball
Did it work? We got through a few bins on the first day and a few more bins the following day. I know FOR A FACT there are still rogue Pokèmon floating around in the house somewhere, though. I guess the house got a little more clean and I modeled some neat behavior for them, that was good.
But what I neglected to do until the very end was commit to engaging in imaginative play with them. They kept asking me when Team Rocket was going to get there to battle. I tried a bit at the end of the second day to indulge them, but cleaning had kind of triggered my compulsiveness and I don't feel like I gave it my full effort. I still think the general concept was sound, just next time I should devote a certain amount of time to just playing with the kids.
SELFGRADE: B. Good concept, definitely room to improve.