Had an interesting improvised moment with the kids the other
day. We were talking about a subject that they were all
familiar with, and I asked them to summarize the information
that we were referencing in 20 words or less. I counted
their words on my fingers as they spoke, which they found
very amusing (this had the side benefit of showing them the
cost of fillers like "um," "like," and others.) After they
each tried, I gave them my 20-word versioin of the content.
It was a lot of fun, and while my original intent was simply
to move the conversation along without getting stalled on
information that we were all familiar with, I found the
exercise enjoyable and instructive. While I don't generally
feel like a concise communicator, it is something that I
aspire to. It was pleasant to see the value of the idea
click in my children in a real way.
