Interactive media & old card games

Something rather odd happened with our pre-schoolers on Friday, and I still can't put my finger on exactly what it shows up.

You can see quite clearly that the children were very animated & engaged with the game at hand - matching images. They couldn't wait to have their turn and were trying to push the monitor through the wall!

We insisted they tell us which card they wanted to click on (bit young to be accurate enough with a mouse) with "This one please, Naomi". They couldn't say it quickly enough! Once the picture was revealed, they had to tell us what it was before the next picture was clicked. Sometimes they'd remember where the other pair was & tell us before clicking!

OK, so nothing too odd here...except that if we play exactly the same game with actual cards, they do not get enthusiastic at all. They keep turning over the same (often nearest) cards repeatedly, and seem determined not to make pairs. It gets really, really boring! How come? I thought it would be the other way round.

So, I'm glad we found an exciting new way to play an age old game...but I'm disappointed we have to turn on the PC when we've got a mountain of great flashcards to play with!