Girl Stuff

I recently picked up The Daring Book For Girls in my local Costco, and I was completely delighted.  It’s like my whole childhood has been recorded in between the gilded blue covers of that book.  It’s missing a few things, of course, but it also covers a few things I never knew, (all about female pirates) or knew how to do.  (I now have my husband in paranoid suspicion that I will short-sheet the bed some night when I have to work late!)  In the spirit of that amazing book, I’ve decided to record some of the things I think would enrich a girl’s life, if she knew about them.  This is part one…

Fox and Goose is a game best played in the wet sand at low tide (it becomes very obvious who just stepped out of bounds), although if you have chalk and a big expanse of pavement that works too.  Fox and Goose is essentially a game of tag with boundaries.  The Fox is “it” and the Goose is everyone else who’s playing.  Like any game of tag, when the Fox tags a Goose, that Goose now becomes the Fox.  There’s never more than one Fox at a time.

Draw a giant circle on the ground.  Don’t forget that you’ll be running around this circle, so make it really huge- especially if you’re playing with a lot of people.  Draw another circle just inside the big circle to make a pathway where a line of people can run.  Draw a tiny circle in the middle of the pathway just big enough for a person to stand, and label this “FOX”.  Now connect the Fox’s den to the giant circle with a bunch of straight paths.  You should end up with a game board that looks a lot like a bicycle wheel turned on it’s side, like this:

The Fox can ONLY run in the spokes of the wheel, or the small circle that’s her den.  The Geese can run anywhere on the game board, including the Fox’s den if she’s daring enough.  Anyone who steps out of bounds automatically becomes the Fox.  Otherwise, the rules are the same as for any regular game of tag.   Have fun playing!