Hoppy Taw

I don’t remember who taught me to play hopscotch; I may have learned at school when I was five. A piece of chalk mapped out the course – usually a series of numbered rectangles and paired squares topped by a half-circle “safe” zone where the hopper could turn around and head back to the beginning. Before hopping, we tossed a marker into one of the squares or rectangles, beginning with number 1. We skipped this space on the way to the safe zone, and on the way back we retrieved our marker. We took care not to step on a line or tip over, lest we lose a turn. I’ve seen kids play this game using a stone or a beanbag as a marker, but I used a Hoppy Taw. I actually stumbled across a Hoppy Taw at the grocery store last week. I decided to buy it to see if I could teach the game to my four-year-old grandson.