Creative Solution

My son got a checkerboard/chessboard at a garage sale the other day. It's nice, all made of wood and stuff. Only problem was that it didn't come with any pieces. I told him we'd have to pick some up at the store some time. They're easy to come by, and usually really cheap. But he didn't like that idea. He didn't want to wait. He was going to find something to take the place of the real checkers.

His first idea was to use Nerf darts. He'd also bought a huge bag of them at the garage sale. He had plenty for both sides of the board.

"That won't work, Little," I said, "they'll fall over all the time. Besides they have to be different colors. They're usually red and black. They can't all be blue."

A few minutes later he came back with the perfect solution.

They're the right size; they slide along the board nicely; and, when you need to make a king, they stack better than any checkers ever have. Oh, and they get an extra point because they're toys. I like Legos.

He's played a whole lot of checkers since yesterday. He's challenged everyone in the family, and some of us twice. He'd never played before this, but he's starting to get the rules pretty good. Soon, he might start winning.