Checkers

The other day, I taught Frances how to play checkers. She picked up on the rules quickly. Even though she is still getting the hang of the strategy, still she periodically surprises me with a really good move.

We have been playing every now and then. We've started handicapping the game by starting me with fewer pieces. Frances is fairly competitive that way as long as I tell her when pieces are in jeopardy of being jumped.

Frances really likes to get kings or princesses as she calls them. It's an exciting event when she gets one. The second game we played, she looked sad said, "I didn't get any kings" (she hadn't started calling them princesses yet). So, the next game I made sure she got at least one king. It makes her happy. Now that we are handicapping though, she can get her own princesses.

The only downside to the games are that Frances has the attention span of a four year old. I have to keep her on task the whole time.

On the whole, it is a lot of fun to play with her. I just feel a little bad
because Johann wants to play too but he is to young yet.

mwz