Play This Challenging Korean Game

Earlier this week, I wrote about my fun experience using gold spray paint.

Since then, I’ve got a couple more ideas percolating on the back burner that I want to do and share with you.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to do them sometime next week.

Stay tuned.

It also got me thinking about a Korean game that I recently learned about. The game uses rocks.

I’ve got lots of rocks in my yard.

But of course I couldn’t use plain, ordinary rock-colored rocks, now could I?

No siree, Bob!

So, out came my can of gold spray paint!

Here are the rocks that I used.

I got them out of my flower bed. No lack of rocks there! If anybody would like rocks so they can play this game, I’ve got billions for you to choose from. You’d just  have to come pick them out of my yard. Lemme know if you are interested.

Here they are all sparkly gold.

What’s that, you say? Are you saying, “Come on, come on! Tell us about the game?”

Okey dokey. Here goes.

The game is called Kongki Noli. Don’t ask me how to pronounce it. My Korean is a little rusty. (Nay, it is totally non-existent!)

This game is a traditional Korean game. It is similar to the game of ‘jacks.’ Did you play jacks as a kid? I was obsessed with that game in the 4th grade!

Instead of metal jacks, the Koreans use rocks. And they play the game a tad different. At the end, it is VERY challenging. It would be a game that could keep grandkids occupied for a long time as they perfected their skill playing the game.

So, here are the directions.

You will need five small stones. Preferably painted gold. 🙂

One grandchild tosses the rocks on the ground. She then picks up one and tosses it in the air. She quickly picks up another rock and then catches the rock she just tossed up. She now has two rocks in her hand.

She throws one of the rocks from her hand into the air, and picks up a third rock. She continues picking up rocks until she has all of the rocks in her hand. This is the first round.

For the second round, she picks up two rocks every time she throws one rock in the air.

In the third round, she picks up three rocks. In the fourth round, she picks up four.

Now comes the challenging part of the game. She tosses all of the rocks in the air and then tries to catch them on the back of her hand. She tosses them up again and catches them in her palm. The number of rocks that she catches is her score. If she fails to catch them, it’s the next player’s turn.

The object is to be the person with the highest score when you decide to quite playing.

This game helps grandchildren develop their fine motor skills and their hand-and-eye coordination. It might even help teach them patience and perseverance! (like I know it would me).

I hope you have fun playing this game with the grands — and having a Korean party.