How to Play Checkers with a Five-Year-Old

Leia Rose lost her privilege of watching TV this Sunday because she forgot to do her chores before dinner one day this week. The result was lots of fun game playing (that Leia finally admitted was more fun than TV anyway). : ) One of the games we played was Dino Checkers (which is just like regular checkers with dinosaurs). This was at Leia's request. It took a few trial games in the past to come up with a winning strategy on how to play with Leia Rose, . . . and not be bored to tears. : ) The first time we played it, I played normally and whipped her butt. The second time we played, I purposely didn't play at all, so she whipped mine. So today while we played, I struggled to figure out how to make this fun for the both of us. Here are my rules for playing with a five-year-old: 1. Jump one of her checkers ONLY if you are unable to move anywhere else. 2. When you are "kinged" make your new king checker follow the non-kinged rules, only go forward until it hits the other side of the board, then switch. 3. When you get down to only four checkers, PLAY YOUR BEST WITH THE TRUE RULES and see if you can win. Playing by these rules, I still won against Leia Rose, but it was close, . . . and a lot more fun for me! : )