Hi Friends,
We hope you’ve had a lovely last month. Things have been busy in wonderful ways here with lots of music performances and chess tournaments this spring season, along with continued editing of our book. One of the pillars of our homeschooling lives has been chess. This past weekend, both boys competed in the WA State Elementary Chess Championships, in 3rd grade and Kindergarten, respectively. Both boys scored 3.5/5, earning three wins, a loss, and a draw, each. Moreover, the big guy won the State titles in both puzzle solving and bughouse, a lovely two player variant of chess that focuses on teamwork. While all the benefits of chess couldn’t possibly be codified in this short blog post, the community we’ve found through chess and the friendships we’ve made have proved invaluable for our boys’ growth.
A few habits of mind that we’ve noticed chess empowers are turn taking, patience, spatial reasoning, planning, number sense, sportsmanship, rational decision making under uncertainty, and resilience. These habits of mind, we feel, are not only critical for chess success but crucial life skills that will serve the boys well throughout their lives. One of the stories we’ll discuss in the book is how the little guy got his start in chess, at just three years of age, highlighting concepts like goal setting, learning how to lose, and the resiliency to view every setback as a learning opportunity. While one of the mediums we’ve chosen to focus on is chess, these skills can be acquired through a plethora of activities and we hope you’ll find our stories and experiences resonate with yours.
Cheers!
The Sankrithi Family