Game of the week

Mancala

I got this game for Jeff a few days ago. I was thrilled to see it on clearance for $3.50 at walmart and remembered a few months ago that Jeff had commented on it being his favorite childhood game. Personally (I hadn't played it at the time) it sounded really lame and boring, but I went ahead and got it for him.

That evening, after he got off of work he taught me how to play it. We ended up not going to bed until about 5:30 because we were having so much fun playing.

Ever since then, we've played this game every chance we get. Phaw! Chinese Checkers is an old hat now!

This evening I was in a mood for a good run of Mancala. So I went home and brought it back to my parent's, hoping to teach one of the kids how to play. As soon as I walked through the door with it, they all lit up. I guess they used to play it in Math class at the learning center. They lined up and each took a turn playing with me, then got back into line. We had a lot of fun!

I was enjoying beating all of them and of course, I rubbed it in. But then, it was Shadd's turn. I knew as soon as the game began, that I was in trouble. Shadd is the "brain" in our family. He has such a way of thinking things through it's amazing. He's especially good at math and all different types of puzzles. So I knew this game was right down his alley.

The little turd beat me by 1 stone!! We had an immediate rematch and this time, he won by 6 stones. I quit playing with him after that.

It's funny. In our family, we don't play board games very often. But when we finally do play one, it's the "thing" to do and that's all we do for days and days and hours and hours. They need a Mancala board, because I know this will be the new "thing" for the next several days.