Dear Answer Girl,
What are the rules to hopscotch? From what I can tell, it seems kind of dumb.
Kid at HeartYou know, lots of kids’ games are kind of dumb. For instance, everyone plays tag as a kid (and sometimes an alternate variety – “I’m running away to flirt with you so please chase me and catch me” – long after childhood is through).
Is tag dumb? Of course. All you are doing is wasting your energy running around. What do you get in the end? Tired.
Tag is a clear sign that our society has made things too easy for children. Come on, if kids feel like running around after each other for no reason outside (and sometimes even in inclement weather), then think what all kinds of productive things they could be using their energy for instead – cleaning things, carrying things, moving things, working on things, school related things, gathering things, planting things … the list goes on.
Or if they really just needed to run after something, they could chase down pigs or maybe fleeing criminals.
But see, children have always been only slightly tolerable, so when parents and other adults get tired of them on any given afternoon (or morning, mid-morning, mid-afternoon, late afternoon, evening or night), they allow for almost any kind of pointless behavior as long as a) it is out of the way of the adults and b) any injuries and/or damage are not permanent or particularly costly. Thus, the dumb kids’ game was born.
Hopscotch is an excellent example of a pointless kids’ game. Player One (there can just be one player if no other kids want to play…) first has to buy chalk and draw a grid somewhere on the sidewalk or street where they won’t get hit by cars, bikes, skateboarders or savage dogs.
Then he or she must find a rock or small piece of garbage to use as the “stone.” Player One stands on one side of the grid and throws the “stone” so that it lands and stops in the first square.
Then, Player One must jump over that square and land on the next one on one foot. Then Player One continues to “hopscotch” on one foot (or two in the case of squares lying horizontally adjacent to one another, at which point Player One lands and hops with one foot in each square, simultaneously) until he/she gets to the end.
After that, Player One must turn around and repeat the hops all the way back, taking care to pick up the “stone” and end at the beginning.
Then, Player Two (etc.) does the EXACT same thing. It’s really exciting.
After everyone has made it through the first round, Player One tosses his/her “stone” into the second square. He/she does get to hop on the first square, but must again hop OVER the square with the stone, etc. etc.
The first person to get all the way through all the squares wins.
I’m not sure if this has ever happened in the history of mankind. Incidentally, if anyone lands on a line, falls down, hops wrong or misses with his/her stone, he/she has to go to the end of the line in shame and then start again on that same square when it’s finally his/her turn.
Lots and lots of never-ending fun.
As a bonus, let me share a personal favorite from my stock of pointless kids’ games. I was a camp counselor, so you know I have plenty.
This one comes to us all the way from the fifth-grade schoolyard. It’s called Pickle, and I’m starting a petitioning group on campus to compete with other schools as a club team, if anyone’s interested.
See, there are two “bases” (the best kinds are trees or trashcans – big objects that are clearly visible and painful when the inevitable accidental smash into one occurs).
There are also two “teams.” One team has two people (we’ll call them the defense) and the other has everyone else (the offense).
The defenders set up on either side of the field, near the bases. The offensive team divides between the bases, too, but they’ll probably want to be touching the bases so they won’t get out right off the bat.
The defenders then toss a ball (tennis balls and racquetballs are the best because they don’t break bones when people get pegged) back and forth and wait until someone messes up.
The object is for the offense to run back and forth between the bases without being tagged or pegged by the ball. (Usually the offense runs after a clumsy defender misses or drops the ball.)
When tagged or pegged, a player immediately becomes defense and the tagging/pegging defender moves to offense.
Play until everyone passes out from exhaustion or until Mom calls you home for dinner.
It’s a classic and really super fun. Let me know if you want to get together and play sometime.

Got a question, or want to play “Pickle” with the Answer Girl? E-mail her at ETSUAnswerGirl @hotmail.com.

Author