Previously a children's and intergenerational animator, playing was an integral part of my former profession.
To make children aware of respect for the environment, I offered a "Brico Recover" workshop, including one, "Crea'games" around board games.
And it gave board games created from everyday materials, to learn how to give a second life to everyday objects. In the photos, we recycled cereal boxes, scraps of paper from other activities, newspapers and magazines, milk bottles and their caps, among other things ...;)
Good day and good game ;)
Little horses with cardboatd cereal boxes...
Spinning tops made with skewers and magazine scraps.
Rolls of paper that become African totems with fabric scraps and a little imagination ...
A magician's hat with foil and boxes of supplies.
A little tired balloon ... and Gypsie comes to life!
During the Christmas period, we prepare different types of gift packages.
Our favorites remain those for children where we take particular pleasure in making original packages and hiding lots of little surprises in them. :)
I remember a merchant in the town where I was born who put out surprises in addition to Christmas presents. As a child, these little gifts made me happy.
From the first Christmas of the store, I took pleasure in creating or offering little surprises to hide in the gift or its package so that the children could feel the joy of an unexpected surprise in addition to the original gift.
I smile thinking of all these children who perhaps have the same pleasure as me, I had little to open gifts and discover more surprises... :)
Adding surprises that correspond to our customers and their children and seeing that they have had the desired effect (surprising and pleasing) is an incomparable pleasure, especially at Christmas.
It reminds me of this little 4-year-old man who came to get a surprise with a personalized package just for him and who asked me:
“And the gift packages, did the elves make them? ".
During a time of volunteering, I found myself during an intergenerational play time to animate a role play.
As a game master, I have made it my mission to succeed in bringing parents and children together around secret objectives related to games...
The goal was to solve puzzles using the clues that each parent and each child had in their hands.
During this play time, an autistic child was afraid of the hubbub caused by the other apprentice investigators and their parents.
His mom was about to quit the game so she could reassure her autistic son when her other son started sulking, saying, "Mom, I don't want to quit the game."
The mother was going to try to calm her son down like she had done before, singing him a certain song that would calm him down.
Seeing this mother saddened that her other child can no longer play and having previously observed it, I approached the young autistic child and sat down in front of him, starting to sing the famous song.
He then took my hand to show me that he was reassured by the song and his mother smiled at me knowing that she could continue the game with her other son.
When her first son had calmed down, we joined them to finish the game and the evening ended very well.
When I left, this mother said to me:
"Never change, you are extra, that's what makes you unique".
Whenever I encountered a difficulty that I thought was insurmountable, my grandfather always used this expression that his grandfather before him had also said to him:
" At valiant heart nothing impossible ".
I grew up with this idea that difficulty could slow us down, but not stop us.
Now, I see difficulty as a challenge that pushes us to surpass ourselves.
Creating the store was a challenge for me and it continues to be so on a daily basis with the difficulties that any trader can encounter: unfair competition, jealousy and various gossip, economic and health crisis, etc...
But beyond all that, there is the reason why it all started that keeps us going.
When you no longer know why you want to continue, you have to ask yourself why you started.
Often the answer to this question allows us to know why we do things and allows us to make choices in life.
When you have the heart to undertake and want to succeed in something, you have to give yourself the means to achieve them, whether it is easy or more complicated.
We will often fail, we will succeed sometimes, but we will always move forward more experienced than before and even more determined.
Because : " At valiant heart nothing impossible " ;)
During events within private or associative organizations, I often find myself facing beginner players or connoisseurs of classic games.
Most of the time, they don't know all the current playful nuggets...
That's good, it's my role to make them discover them ;)
To get players to succeed in assimilating a game and its rules, it is often useful to offer games that are based on an already known mechanic.
As Pablo Picasso said so well:
“To teach people something, you have to mix what they know with what they don't know. »
It's a very wise phrase that I apply on a daily basis to get my players to become comfortable with unknown games and make them want to play again.
I must not be doing too badly, because, one example among many others, a little lady who did not want to play because she was not used to playing board games told me:
“I had a great time around the games with you. Looking forward to next week that you make us discover other games."
When the animations were suspended because of the covid, the online animations replaced them but it was not the same...
During outdoor events, we share extra moments with the players and the pleasure of the game is mutual as much for them as for me.
As soon as we were able to set up animations in secure sanitary conditions, we were happy to see that our regular players were there and had found other players to join us. :)
And as the expression “the more the merrier, the merrier” says so well, which we could adapt to the world of games as “the more players there are, the more we share”.
And we can say that entertainment is like cycling, it comes back on its own! ;)
We found the right reflexes and good habits quite quickly while respecting the health rules.
Getting together to play and share a fun moment, what more could you ask for?
Best, perhaps the closing sentence of one of the animations by a regular player:
The Christmas period is a joyous time when the playful world is very busy and happy to be as far as we are concerned. :)
The game is a way to bring players together in normal times, but the Christmas period has seen a large number of novice players regain a taste for games and the playful exchange that it entails...
Administering gossip to willing ears to recoup the profits is a rather lucrative Christmas spirit, it would seem…
I don't know what it is, because the integrity and trust of my customers are much more important to me than additional sales. But I guess all means are good to earn some money…
Strolling through a store to express a vicious glee that “it’s shit”. Giggling while staring at the shopkeeper there must be satisfying for people who peddle anything and everything…
I waited patiently without satisfying their craving for any negative reaction from me, when they moved on and realized that I was not alone...
Too bad, regulars were there and glared at them, scaring our missionaries away.
Thank you to you who trust us on a daily basis and to you who joined us in the playful world. :)
You will always be welcome to share the joy of the playful world together.
You contribute to keeping this world beautiful and full of good times of exchange and sharing;)
So simply:
Thanks thanks thanks !
And as my client rightly said that day:
"Be nice, these people lose more than you on the exchange."
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