Captain's Mistress

It has been a long time since I have taken the time to post.  And much has happened since my last post.  I officially graduated with my Ph.D., accepted a friend's proposal, moved from Missouri to Tennessee, started a new "temporary" job, married this friend, learned my way around a new town and a new city, and finally... applied for, interviewed for, and accepted a "permanent" job at the same university that hired me temporarily.  It has been a very busy two years! 

Despite all of this change in my life, several things have remained constant- my love of teaching, my love of mathematics and science, and my love of games.  Luckily, my friend and husband feeds my love of games by shopping for them at thrift stores (even when I cannot be with him to help!).  This evening he totally scored big time with a "new to me" old favorite!  While shopping the Goodwill Store in Dayton, TN he discovered The Captain's Mistress Game for $1.99.  I found it on Amazon ranging from $35 to $46. 

It seems the game is hundreds of years old and that Captain Cook was so enamored of the game during long voyages, the crew began calling it The Captain's Mistress.  However, the game is not unfamiliar.  You see, it is simply the game of Connect Four played in a beautiful wooden box and instead of checkers, players use light and dark colored wooden spheres. 

Connect Four was one of my sister's and my favorite games to play as children.  It was also a perennial favorite of my third graders in St. Louis.  But the familiar Connect Four is hardly affordable (over $26 at Amazon) when you're attempting to purchase several sets so that many students may play.  What is a teacher to do? 

While teaching in St. Louis, collected a picnic basket full of travel games.  I purchased six or seven Four in a Row games from an "everything is a dollar" type store.  That meant that for $6, 12 of my students could enjoy Four in a Row during indoor recess or math class.  These games were small (about the size of an adult's hand) and the "checkers" were tiny.  To make keeping up with the small pieces easy, I place them in Ziploc sandwich bags. 

Are you not certain about the efficacy of using games like Connect Four or Tic-Tac-Toe in your classroom or with your children?  Constance Kamii and Mariko Naghiro share their thoughts about the Educational Value of Tic-Tac-Toe for Four to Six Year Olds here.