Monster Jam

Unbeknownst to my son, mom has turned playing with monster trucks into an
educational activity.

Muah-ha-ha! (That's my evil laugh.)

Hunter L-O-V-E-S monster trucks and watching Monster Jam on hulu.com. Back when we had cable TV in Arizona, Greg got home from school right at the time that Monster Jam came on the Speed Channel. It was an every day affair that Greg and Hunter sat down to watch it together. That's when Hunter's love for Monster Trucks really blossomed. Ever since then, he has collected many toy monster trucks, and they're one of his favorite toys to play with. We also took him to Monsters on the Beach both years we've been here in Virginia Beach.

Now that his imagination is just starting to really come out as he grasps the idea of "pretending," we started having our own Monster Jams on the living room floor. We set up obstacles, and he lined up the trucks and each one gets their turn to freestyle. We both become the announcers as each truck takes their turn. He makes me laugh with how much he retains from the commentators from the show. He says things like, "BIG AIR!" "He's going to fill the clock." "He's going into 'bonus time,' " and he even told me one of the trucks "broke their left-front tire." I make a chart including every participant, and each one gets a score from the judges. Hunter is responsible for keeping score.
Hunter absolutely LOVES the new game, and I love that he gets practice forming and writing numbers! (After we pick a two-digit score, he has to tell me what numbers need to be put together to form that number, then he writes it down.)

Win-win!