child's drawings

Luksong-Tinik (Jump over Thorns)

Luksong Tinik (Jumping Over Thorns)
Minimum number of players: usually 3 but 2 can also work (more players is usually much more fun!)

Equipment required: a grassy field with lots of room to run and tumble

First children decide among themselves who will play first and who will be the two who will act as the “thorns” in the game. Thorns have a very important as well as difficult task in the game. Jumpers take turns passing the levels. The jumpers form a queue and the thorns take their position.

The “thorns” (A & B) sit, facing each other with the soles of their feet touching. This is the first level that jumpers must successfully jump through without touching any of their body parts with those of the thorns’ body parts.

Two players on the base will sit facing each other with their right feet touching. The jumpers jump over the feet. Then one hand is placed above the feet with palms and fingers open, then another, and so on until all the fingers are piled one on top of the other. Before an additional hand is placed all the players must have jumped over the file. Oftentimes, the hand of another player is placed at the gap to prevent the jumpers from jumping over it. Sometimes, five hands are used and a fourth player is called upon to fill the file of the hands.
When the jumpers jump over the hands without touching the hands with any part of their body, or dress, the game is repeated and they will be the jumpers again. If the mother's "children" (rest of the team) touch the hands while jumping over them, its is considered a "fault" (an error), and the mother will jump for them. But if it is the mother who fails, then the team will have to take the place of the team on base.

hide and seek-child's play

Hide-and-seek or hide-and-go-seek is a variant of the game tag, in which a number of players conceal themselves in the environment, to be found by one or more seekers.

In the normal variant, "it" counts to a number that was designated before the game started. Once "it" reaches that number he or she yells "Come out, come out wherever you are!" or "Ready or not, here I come!" and then starts searching for the players who have hidden. When "it" finds a player, "it" will generally say something along the lines of, "I see you (player), you are hidden in (hiding place)," so that the player will know he or she has been spotted. The first person "it" finds will become "it" in the next round. But "it" continues searching for other players until all the players are found. The last person found doesn't get any prize or reward but it is accepted that he or she has the best hiding place. If "it" gives up, he or she can yell "Olly olly oxen free!" and the players will come out of their hiding places, a new round will ensue with the same "it", and the players may or may not choose the same hiding place.

n a more active variant, hide and seek can be combined with the game of tag. Instead of "it" simply spotting players, he or she has to tag them instead to get them out. Hiders can make a dash for Home Base, which is usually a landmark where whoever is "it" counts off. Touching the base area makes a hider safe, and the aim of the game is to touch base without being tagged. The seeker continues to search for hiders and if he/she finds none then he/she is "it" again in the next game. However, if "it" finds and tags someone before they are able to touch base, he/she must call out in a loud and repeated fashion "All ye all ye outs in free", "all ye, all ye, in come free", or where the call has been changed and slurred "Olly Olly Oxen free!", which means a new "it" has been tagged and all the other hiders are safe to return back to base.

children playing