01 November 2010

Scratchie*

Not sure if I've mentioned it here before, but Ella has had a bit of a rough time at school finding the balance between being loyal towards her friends and letting them walk all over her. I tried my best to give her the skills to stand up for herself and make better choices when it comes to whom she hangs out with, but after she came home almost every day in term 3 telling me her best friends had been mean to her all day, I'd pretty much given up on this year.

But something changed in term 4. And it turns out it was a new game called 'Scratchie'. I'm still not very clear on the rules or the aim of Scratchie. But there are a few things I most definitely like about it.

I know it's girls against boys. But for a change it's the girls chasing the boys who apparently are happy to run away. Which may not be that surprising when you know that the girls try to scratch the boys. I probably should cut Ella's nails more often. Or not...

Apparently Ella's team has been approached by boys who want to be promoted from scratchees to scratchers. But I'm not sure if the girls have agreed to sharing their role of power in the game with the other sex as yet.

A very welcome and unexpected result of the game is that the friend Ella clashed most with - but has been unable to tear herself away from for 3 terms - does not like the game. And so the friendship triangle that has somewhat spoiled the school experience for so long has finally been broken. And everyone seems to be ok about it.

I also like that it's an active game, as Ella has appeared to be a bit reluctant to play running games for reasons that are not always clear to me.

And it is a team-game, which is always good. They have code names, have secret meetings and work out strategies together.

But the best thing is what Ella told me today about playing the game:

Ella - When you get hurt your mind goes "Quick, quick! I don't want to be sad today!" and then it sends it to your body. Because we can do that.

Meaning that it's regarded as very uncool to get upset over getting hurt and she's finally realising the power of mind over body. Which I happen to think is very cool.

So I am a Scratchie supporter all the way.

* I couldn't decide whether to call this post 'Girl power' instead. But now I've said it: Girl power!

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