In an elevator with James Cameron

P can be pretty longwinded in his explanations - I know, I know, he is only 10... Still, this morning I played a "game" with them to help them practice being concise. I told them to imagine walking into an elevator and bumping into James Cameron (they all saw and loved Avatar). He might offer them a role in his next movie, but he has a test: during the elevator ride they must describe to him a movie. Any movie. The point is, can they skip superfluos details and get all the key points? I went first and did Iron Giant. P did Pirates of the Caribbean 3, A did i Robot and I forget the movie N did [note to self: fix this after I find out]. As expected, they struggled a bit. And N in particular was frustrated. I explained that being concise is something that even most adults can't do. It takes practice, as most other things. But it is an important and worthwhile skill to pursue.

How was that? Was this entry concise enough? Maybe I could have skipped the specific movies we each did :-)...