"Let's Play Chess Mommy!"

This was the call from J2 this morning. He had asked his oldest brother if he could get his chess set and E9 told him to ask me. So, J2 bops down the stairs to ask, "Mommy, play chess?" My answer was yes and we set off to set up a match.

J2 loves to set up chess and move pieces around and dump the board and do it all again. Today he kept asking, "What's this Mommy?" And of course I replied with names like rook, bishop, knight, king, queen, pawns. Before we knew it he was pointing to and moving pieces all over naming them- correctly! He knows that knights have horses and pawns are up front.

We played at this for quite some time just naming them, asking about them, moving them, dumping them, repeating their names. Very cute stuff! After the rest of us played a few games and I-5 was charged that he beat his sister R7 in their match- all by himself, we put the game away.

However, this evening we encouraged J2 to ask Daddy for a game. He wasted no time identifying his pieces and moving them around. Maybe one day we'll be able to teach him some moves. Until then, we'll just enjoy the time together "playing chess". Well like the big kids of course!