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Growing into Charades

My daughter uses her hands to explain things, tell me things and invent stories.
I do too.  It's like she has learned somehow, from me, from teachers, that to explain something accurately, you must use your hands.  It seems like a conscious decision she's made, not just a reflex.
She is well equipped to play charades, but for her brother it has not been easy to play charades.  Re-creating concepts/things with ones hands has been out of reach.  But, suddenly, without warning over the weekend, charades has become a game that all four of us can play together.  Out of the blue, he started challenging me to guess what he was acting out.
Before, someone always got left out or misunderstood or misinterpreted and it was just not worth the heartache. But now, we've all grown into charades.  He's learning from his sister how to use his hands.
The latest charades included: writing with a pen that is running out of ink, Santa coming down the chimney,  throwing a ball to a puppy and listening to grandma (and therefore, too busy to play charades right now).

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