Go Club

Erich has been frustrated at the lack of a Go Club here in the Inland Empire, so he decided to start his own. For a while, he was the only person in attendance. More recently, Elena has been going with him. She begged him to let her go. He explained the required standards of behaviour, and from his report, she has been able to comply. Her first time at the club, she spent over two hours doing nothing but Go problems. Her skills are improving, but she has some difficulty with not always being the winner. I sometimes overhear her say, "I want to play you again, but this time you need to not go in the places that *I* want to go." This is actually a good sign--it shows that she recognizes moves that her opponent makes that are detrimental to her position. I think it's also useful for her to learn how to lose. Her games here at home are played with her gang of imaginary friends (the same ones that attend her "classes" with her). No huge surprise, somehow she manages to win all the games. So it takes some adjustment when she interacts with real children who can beat her at footraces or other games. She sometimes comes to us crying and says, "But at home, I am the fastest kid!" I can't really argue with her logic there.

I would be interested to hear a description of Erich's experiences with her at Go Club; I only over hear her playing Go at home. She seems to enjoy it, though as I think I've mentioned before, she'll happily do just about anything if it means she'll get direct interaction with an adult. Still, I think it's probably good for the development of her analytical, spatial, and sportsmanship skills.