HOW TO TEACH KIDS TO PLAY CHESS (STORY TIME CHESS GAME)
Thanks to KIDSTUFFPR for providing Julie the Story Time Chess Game to Teach kids to play chess.
Do you play chess? I don’t. Am I intimidated to learn it? Perhaps just a bit! Until now. Side-note: who has time to learn chess? We do!
During this quarantine, I often tell my children, “Kids, we have nothing but time!” So, enter “Story Time Chess,” a brand new game that teaches kids (AND adults!!!) how to play chess through reading silly stories that help teach the rules. This is certainly better than telling them some abstract rules and hoping they “get it.”
My kids are ages 3, 6, 8 and 10; I’ve quickly learned if we make it fun, we make it relevant so I love this approach. Story Time Chess says it can teach kids as young as three years old to learn chess.
The first chapter in the “Story Time Chess” book is called “King Chomper: The White King.” Second chapter is “King Shaky: The Black King.” There are nine chapters in all. The short stories kept my kids’ attention easily and were done within a few minutes.
In the first chapter, we learn that King Chomper takes one step at a time and thus, that’s how he moves when we complete “Exercise 1” on the story time themed chess game board. There are Character Cutouts that are inserted into the corresponding chess pieces, another kid-friendly part of this!
The instructions recommend rereading each chapter and playing the fun mini-games repeatedly for about a week. They say repetition and rereading are key for their minds to grasp this new info.
After reading and playing the first few chapters, my older kids were really having fun and have asked each day to keep playing. My three-year-old enjoys the stories but has more trouble sticking with the game rules. I’m sure it will come in time though!
The final chapter (9) is the culmination of reading all the chapters and learning all the pieces in the Storybook. You only play this when you think your child (and perhaps their parents, wink wink!) is confident with how each piece moves.
Did I mention the story side chess board is a standard chessboard on the other side for those of you with expert players in the family?
I love hearing my kids say, “Hey, can we play chess today?” Not one tear has been shed in frustration and in my book, that’s a win. Story Time Chess made what I assumed was a complicated game very fun for kids (and for me!). This game truly came at the right time with the extra time we have on our hands with the quarantine.
0 Comments