Connect Four

I loved playing Connect Four when I was a child.   I don't know how old I was when I got the game but I believe it was when it was rather new.  It came out in 1974 and I got it fairly young (I was born in 1970) and I'm guessing I had it by eight or so.  The cardboard box the game was in got more and more worn over the years, with tape bolstering the corners and edges.  Eventually, the box was lost to time and the game was kept in a ziplock bag.

That bag, along with other games I kept through the years, moved with me from house to house.   Sometimes it was in the attic, sometimes it was in a closet with other games and cards.  When we had children it went back in the attic.   It came out a few years ago and I'd been planning on introducing it to the children but somehow it never came up.

I was at Five Below's grand opening the other day, putting too many things in my cart because the price point of $5 or below is just too enticing for me to have much in the way of consumer self-control when I saw a small version of Connect Four.   The chips looked like they were a good size where I could add tactile elements to one of the colors so my daughter could learn and play with me.

This morning I added fuzzy stickers to the red chips and took the game over to our friend's house along with the dog and my daughter.   Everyone was going to have a play date hopefully.   Juliette saw the game in my hands and immediately wanted to play.   My daughter said, "Connect Four?  I want to play."  

It turns out she's learned how to play in the VI room at school.   She played with Juliette once and didn't win, something that makes her unhappy, so she didn't want to play again.   Tonight I brought the game back out while her father was drying her hair and played with her.

It was a bit in when I realized she wasn't playing with diagonals as a winning option.   It's harder for her because she either has to review the entire playing field every move or remember what the layout of chips is as it goes along.   It's hard when you can't look at the board as a whole to plan your moves.

We finished the game with me blocking her from winning three times while I never got three in a row.   She was unhappy she didn't win.   She needs to work on her sportsmanship.   I wasn't letting her win, but I wasn't trying to win very hard either.   She played quite well, considering.

We're going to rematch tomorrow.   I think she'll do well with the game when she has some more games down in practice.   I'm hoping we can take turns winning too so she can get some practice being both a gracious winner and a fair sportsman as a loser.

The Big Boy Update:  My son is off tomorrow on a three-day field trip with the third-year students from both lower elementary classrooms.  He's pretty excited about it.  He wants to read the book his father got for him to read tonight, instead of going to sleep.   I told him he had to wait until tomorrow.   I'm glad he wants to read through.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter had a Y-Guides meeting tonight at a house with a pool.   My husband showed me pictures of their pool.  There is a curving slide, a grotto and you can jump or dive off from the decorative rocky area above.   They have a hot tub...and a basketball court in their basement.   I would have liked to see a basketball court in a basement that's fully underground.