Mimi the Mockingbird Makes Decoys

Mimi is a clever, bright-eyed little mockingbird, and Mimi has one delightfully sneaky trick: she makes DECOYS. A decoy is a look-alike - a copy that looks exactly like the real hidden figure, placed around the room to fool the seeker’s eyes.

“Watch this,” Mimi says, with a mischievous twinkle. “The real figure is hidden somewhere. But I’ll pop down THREE decoys - three look-alikes, spread about - that look JUST like it.” And she does: three little copies, scattered here and there, each one a perfect match for the eye.

Now the seeker looks around and - oh! - there seem to be figures everywhere! “Is it that one? Or that one? Or THAT one?” It’s tricky! Your eyes can’t tell which is real.

“That’s the whole fun of a decoy,” Mimi chirps. “It fools your EYES. But here’s the secret that saves you…” She leans in. “A decoy is only a look-alike. It’s not the real thing. So a decoy gives off NO heat. None at all. Only the REAL figure is warm.”

So when the seeker follows the warm/cold trail, the decoys don’t fool it one bit. The seeker checks a decoy - “cold. Just a fake.” Checks another - “cold again.” But near the REAL one - “warm… hot… boiling!” The heat leads true, straight past every decoy, to the real hidden figure.

“So don’t trust your eyes alone,” Mimi says wisely, ruffling her feathers. “My decoys will trick your eyes every time. Trust the TRAIL. The warm doesn’t lie - it always points to the real one.”

That is Mimi’s clever, tricky idea.

I make sneaky look-alike decoys - they fool your eyes, but they give off no heat, so the trail still finds the real one.

A grown-up can play too! Hide a special little toy, then set out two or three OTHER toys that look similar as “decoys.” Now let your friend find the real one - but tell them the rule: only the real one gives a “warmer!” Watch them learn to trust the warm trail over their tricked eyes, checking past the decoys to the real thing.

When the seeker follows the heat straight past all three of Mimi’s decoys and finds the real figure, Mimi does a proud, fluttery little bow. “My decoys fooled the eyes,” she trills happily, “but not the trail! That’s the lovely lesson: a good clue beats a tricky look, every time.”

Decoys fool the eye, not the heat. That’s Mimi.