Mancala!

My family loves playing games. Any type of game...we'll play it. Cards, dominoes, board games...doesn't matter, we'll play games after supper til bedtime over watching t.v. almost every time. Now, that being said, we are also ALL very competitive in these games. Jaxen hates losing to one of his parents, Jayla hates losing to her brother, and I really hate losing to Jerod. There are some games I just won't play with him because it's not worth the embarrassment of getting my tail kicked.

In our African studies it told me to make a mancala game out of an egg carton to play while going through this study. Well I knew I had heard of this game before and was pretty sure my sister owned it so we just borrowed hers. I guess they play this game in Africa and that's why it's part of our curriculum. Cool! a new game to play. It's holes and marbles and very simple...what a great way to spend time with my kids.

I stink at it! Not only have I yet been able to beat Jaxen, I can't figure out HOW to beat him. And we are not talking getting beat by 1 or 2 points...no, he beats me by 6 or 7points, tells me what move I missed to get points after I've played all my moves and then piles on all his points after that. UGH! Do you know how frustrating it is to lose to an 8 year old time and time again?

So last night, I thought, Ok you little turkey, I'll make you play your dad and that will show you! (Let me first say, this game takes good math skills and my husband is awesome at math. He can figure monthly payments for a mortgage in his head within minutes). They start playing and Jaxen very quickly figures out that his dad is going to smoke him. Not only by a few points but breaks Jaxen's record of points he has earned on all the games he's played. It was fun to watch their strategy minds work against each other and see where Jax gets his math skills from. (It's not me!)

Well I wanted to play Jerod after they finished their games and even though I stopped his strategy, he still beat me. He proceeded to tell our kids that he was so good at this game because he was good at math and Jaxen says, "Yeah and it shows how NOT good mom is at it!"

Very funny. Mock your teacher little man. You'll pay for it later. I'm seeing extra worksheets in your future.

Oh manacala!