Chess!
In a year, our house has gone from owning 0 chess sets to 7 sets!
– Storytime Chess. I’m so happy the Siedlecki’s got it for Abigail. The silly storybook really got her to learn how the pieces move!
– 2 sets for Abigail’s Aftercare program. Abigail generally refuses to play any game if I ask her to. Grumble grumble. But if everyone in the room is already playing, it’s kind of a given that we’re going to play. DO NOT tell Abigail I bought those sets until she’s old enough to know the truth!
– My dad’s chess set. He gave me this amazing set that he got in college. The pieces look to me far more like a “proper” chess set than the very popular Staunton style.
– A set Megan got for me for Christmas (Thanks honey!)
– Another set for Megan’s work. A student of her’s refuses to play with the set Megan got for me! Hurumph! Chess snob! ;-)
– I think Megan just bought a travel set for the Hawaii trip
– And there’s another set at my work too, loaned to Autistry by a mentor. So we can play when I haven’t brought one of my sets to work.
I’m getting to play a bit!
Today I watched two first graders play chess at Aftercare. It was ah-dore-able! No one knew how the pieces moved so they were just moving pieces around and having fun! Last week Abigail and her friend M. challenged me to chess; we played for a while until it devolved into tears. I play about a game a week or so at Autistry against students and sometimes besides mentors (hi Tim!), which is nice.
Today I was buying replacement pieces for those lost at Aftercar and I ALMOST bought a chess book. Then I thought, “Studying chess might be a sure-fire way of muting my enthusiasm!” so I skipped it. Maybe next year!
