Ways to Bond Playing Chess with Kids
Learn great ways to Bond Playing Chess with Kids using Story Time Chess to help children of all ages learn more about this game of strategy!
I'm not sure when I first learned to play chess. I was young. I know by 4th grade I would play against my dad and in classes sometimes. For better or worse we played chess regularly in math classes throughout middle school. And I have tried teaching my kids how to play as well. But it is a complicated game. Story Time Chess now makes it easy to bond by playing chess with my kids. 
Disclaimer: This review was done by team member Emily. She was provided product in exchange for her honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed herein are her own and were not influenced by the developing company and/or its affiliates in any way.
Chess with Kids: The Challenges
Chess has 6 different types of pieces, each with its own rules on how they move and how they "take" other pieces. Kids are impatient and rarely want to sit through a boring lecture on each piece and how it works. Having them remember all that information and utilizing it is even rarer. This only leads to frustration on my part and that of my kids.
Telling The Story
Story Time Chess teaches through a story. The storybook turns each piece into a character and relates a story to explain how they move and operate. We started right at the beginning and learned all about the two kings (King Chomper and King Shaky) and pawns (the kings' children). It was midnight and my kids were begging to keep on going! They loved the stories and wanted to keep going.
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Playing Together, Working Together
Each chapter of the story in Story Time Chess talks about each type of piece then gives multiple exercises that utilize only that piece and integrated it with the other pieces you've already learned about. We would play through each exercise multiple times until I was sure even my 4-year-old understood how that piece worked and how to integrate it with the other pieces. The games are fun and easily allow all 4 of us to work together to teach and learn.
Even when pawns move diagonally to take an opposing pawn, there is a fun rhyme, and the pawn that is taken gets sent to the sidelines to cheer for his team. And every exercise ends with a shaking of hands and offers of "good game" from the opposing sides. It teaches good sportsmanship and it's fun and noncompetitive in such a way that makes learning it fun and easy.
Teaming Up and Playing Fair
Chess isn't exactly a team sport, but learning chess can be! With these fun minigames (a.k.a. the exercises) it's great to work together to help each other learn. My youngest and oldest would team up against me and my 6-year-old to play the games that needed two sides. We would all take turns on the exercises that only needed one "side".
We could read the story and storybook for help when it was needed. My older two kids would even read parts of the book out loud to their siblings. It was wonderful! My oldest picked it up the quickest since he already knew some chess, so he was helping his younger siblings learn the proper moves and demonstrating when they didn't understand.
The Challenges; Part 2:
Honestly, the only challenge we came up against in Story Time Chess was with my youngest. She is 4-years-old now and while kids as young as 3 can learn through this method, my daughter would become attached to certain characters. There are 8 pawns on each side and she only wanted to move the girl character pawns. Ha!
We had to explain that it doesn't matter and it is beneficial to use all the pawns in the exercises and games, but she can be pretty stubborn. At least she does know how the pawns move properly!
Fun Times Together
It will take some time and going over certain exercises before my kids can sit down and play a full game of chess. But that's okay. They are learning and are loving learning through Story Time Chess. They pull it out every single day and constantly want me to read the stories to them. I can't wait to sit down with each of them and see how their strategies grow and improve once we start playing full games. For now, all of us from ages 4 to 35 have fun together learning and practicing.
Be sure to use code: KINGSHAKY at Story Time Chess for 10% off ANYTIME!
Be sure to check out this delicious Cream Cheese Cinnamon Roll recipe as well for a tasty bonding experience.
Homemade Cream Cheese Cinnamon Roll Recipe
Ingredients
- Rolls
- 3 ¼ cups flour
- ¼ cup white sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoon instant yeast
- 1 egg
- ¾ cup milk
- 1 cup water
- ⅓ cup butter softened
- Filling
- 1 cup loosely packed brown sugar
- 4 tablespoons ground cinnamon
- 5 tablespoons butter room temperature
- Icing
- ¼ cup unsalted butter softened
- 4 oz cream cheese softened
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups icing sugar
If anyone wants to teach their kid to play chess with a pure heart, I can recommend a great book 'Chess Puzzles for Kids' with coloring sheets by Maksim Aksanov. It contains a series of diagrams that allow a child to develop smoothly and learn this very difficult game. The author wrote this book with the help of his 6 year old daughter. Through working with her, he could see which elements of the game are the most difficult for a child. Best book ever
An engaging game with lots of thought processing. Great to activity to bond through all ages.
It is a neat idea to have fun while learning the game. Great way for kids to have a positive experience while figuring out how to play.