Learning to Lose

We had a really nice day yesterday. The sun was shining and it was in the low 70s. Lily and Amanda rode their bikes and I took care of a few small projects while Noah napped. Lily and I played a game of chess out on the deck while Noah finished his nap. I told her that we would stop if she had any temper tantrums.

She is doing well with knowing how the pieces move and is starting to understand how they protect each other. She is also starting to learn the relative value on the pieces so that she doesn't trade a rook for a pawn. However, she still needs a lot of help with basic strategy, but we're working on it. I checkmated her once and then we took back a few moves and kept playing. I ended up winning again eventually, but she didn't freak out.

This was a pretty big step for Lily. She really hates to lose, which I guess is not so bad. However, it doesn't take much life experience to know that losing is a part of life sometimes. Hopefully our little chess games will help her with that. Hopefully she will someday win legitimately too.