Chest

 "Mama, do you wanna play chest?"

"I would love to!" say I.

Now a question floats up in my mind.  Is this just to play?  Is it a learning opportunity?  Do I try to teach her the rules and the names of the pieces?  Or do we just try to have fun?  I have been thinking a lot lately about how often I miss learning opportunities with the kids.  But in a moment like this, I am not sure which lesson is more important.  I know that little ones learn as they go, which makes me want to teach her the real rules of the game.  But I also know that she needs to know that I love her and that no matter how the game ends, she is the most important thing to me, which makes me just want to smile sweetly at her and play as though we were having a tea party.

"Don't kiwl my horsie guy.  Or my queen.  Or anybody."

"Your knight."

"Yeah, my knight on my horsie.  Don't kiwl him, K?"

We play for about 20 minutes.  Every time I take one of her pieces, she counts how many each of us has left on the board.  It takes a while.  I start to show her ways she can take my pieces so that the game will move along. 

She takes her queen and makes it kiss the nearest pawn.

She learned that pawns can attack diagonally.  I learned that the horsie guy named his horsie White-ie.

Ellie bangs into the game board and knocks all of the pieces down.  No body wins.

Except the horsie guys.  They ran off with the queen for a picnic.

It was the best game of chest ever.

Tessa wipes out my horsie-guy by smacking it with her bishop. 

Poor, poor horsie.