A couple of weeks ago, I bought Sophia a Dora the Explorer memory card game. It’s basically a match the 72 flashcards of Dora characters. It’s pretty scary how well she’s doing at it. She’s been playing against me the whole time and she’s been really stunning at it. I’m not bad, but my memory sucks these days. I can’t tell you the full standings (because I lost track) but I can say this. The first game she played she only lost by 8 cards. She’s beaten me at least twice (maybe three times) and once very handily. The last game we played she lost, but it was by only four cards.
What surprises me about her playing is that while she does the same kind of strategy I do—which is to try to watch what cards are turned and where they are to find them later—but she has been able to pull matches out of nowhere. I know she’s not palming cards so I’ve been very impressed. She’s also getting an attitude about it. She always asks if I’m proud of her that she made a match. I am, but there’s a couple of times that there was a lilt of sarcasm in her voice that made me want to toss her out a window. Yes, she’s also got my natural competitiveness as well. Sometimes she sulks when she hasn’t won the whole game. I need to work on that.