My kids, like most of us, are often perplexed by simple choices, especially when choosing from a wide selection of options, like which of their friends are “it” first. Whereas we adults pretend to use common sense and analysis in order to dress up an otherwise arbitrary decision, kids resort to more playful means. They might recite a selection rhyme like “eenie meenie miney mo, catch a tiger by its toe…” or “one potato, two potato, three potato four…” or the less savoury “ip dip dog sh*t, you are not it.”

Spinning a bottle is also an old favourite, which led me to think of using a mobile. It might be possible to spin a mobile on a table top, but an alternative would be a virtual bottle-spinner on the phone’s display (a simple Java app, if ever there was one). Yet more fun could be had with a Bluetooth app that enables a ring of mobiles to blink alternately until only one remains lit. There are plenty of other possibilities…