Skipping Rope

well used toy

Originally uploaded by louise.design

Skipping is also called “jump rope”. It can be done individually or with a group. Children often chant traditional rhymes to the beat of the rope on the ground.
This skipping rope has nice wooden handles, but handles are not necessary. Even “rope” is not necessary!! A nineteenth-century book of English games describes the use of a hop stem (the stem of the hop plant – stripped of its leaves) as being preferable to a rope. Would that be called a “hopping rope” then!!??

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Quickgammon Backgammon

Quickgammon Backgammon

Originally uploaded by digivangelist

This game has been around for centuries in India, Persia and the Near East. In the first centrury it was given the name “tabula” (a table or “tables”). For a long time, it was esteemed as highly as chess. The crusader knights carried it on their campaigns.
In the middle ages in England it acquired its present name – gammen being “game” in Middle English, and “back” because in certain circumstances, the pieces are obliged to go back and reenter the board.