Cup is up

Can someone please explain to me what I'm missing here? What is the appeal of stacking cups? And how does this qualify as an activity for gym class?

But that's what AJ has been doing lately. In the same phy.ed. class, I might add, that earlier in the fall did a unit on yo-yos. If this is what passes for physical activity these days, is it any wonder why we're dealing with a childhood obesity epidemic? But I digress...

Fearing that I was sounding like a cranky old mom who didn't understand cool stuff, I asked AJ, "So, what's so fun about cup stacking?"

"You can stack cups."

Seriously. That was his response.

The Speed Stacks website proclaims cup stacking encourages kids to use both sides of their brain so they'll show academic improvement. Uh, yeah. I can see a vast improvement in AJ already.

And so I tried again. Pulling out some leftover party cups, I told AJ to show me the fun. You start out with six cups, he demonstrated.

Then, separating the cups and stacking them as quickly as possible, he explained, "I like to go 'three - two - up you go'.

Okay, so it looked a little cool. And I can appreciate that it's helping improve hand/eye coordination. But that's going to help his academic performance and be a "fantastic motivator for physical fitness?" (to quote the brochure that was sent home in his backpack, in case we want to order stacking cups of our own.)

Of course, watching her brother have fun was a fantastic motivator for Sydney to give it a try.

But then I noticed something that really didn't come as any sort of surprise. AJ didn't just want to stack and unstack the cups as quickly as possible. He just wanted to stack them, and keep stacking them. As evidenced by the continued stacking he did when given a chance to use all the plastic cups.

When they started to fall, I jokingly called, "Timber!"

"No, Mom," AJ patiently explained. "That's called a fumble."

I will never be cool enough for this pretend sport.

But I will remain a cool mom, because AJ proceeded to spend the next hour stacking his cups in various configurations.

An official set includes just 14 cups. I think my leftover plastic cups are way cooler.