The Daring Book for Girls - Andrea J. Buchanan [18]
MAKING A TETHERBALL COURT IN YOUR YARD
Here’s your shopping list:
♦ 10 to 12′ long, 2″ diameter steel pipe
♦ 2′ long, slightly wider than 2″ diameter, steel pipe
♦ Eyebolt with nut (for attaching the rope to the top of the pole)
♦ Drill and bit capable of drilling through metal
♦ Concrete mix
♦ Tetherball
♦ Rope (if not included with the tetherball)
Making the court
Drill a hole through the pole about 4 inches from the top for the eyebolt, and put the eyebolt in place.
Dig a hole in your lawn, gravel driveway, or backyard about 2½ feet deep, with a 2-foot diameter.
Pour in 6 inches of concrete and let it set.
Stand the 2-foot long pipe in the hole and add concrete around the pipe to fill the hole (it’s a good idea to have something to keep the pipe in place while the surrounding concrete sets; also, the pipe should be level with the ground and should protrude just above ground level, but not so much that it sticks up enough to get nicked by a lawn mower).
Once the concrete is set, slide the pole into your concrete-and-pole base (this should be a solid, tight fit, but the long pole is removable).
Attach the rope and ball.
Jump Rope
IT’S SURPRISING to us now, since jump rope is often thought of as a girl’s game, but skipping rope actually began as a boys-only activity, prohibited for females. Nowadays, though, jumping rope is for everyone. It’s even a competitive sport.
Jumping rope has been a favorite game through the ages. Medieval European paintings depict children rolling hoops and jumping rope along cobblestone streets. In 1600 AD Egypt, children used vines for jump rope play. In England, jumping rope was particularly popular around Easter, when skipping took place in Cambridge and in several Sussex villages. Even today, every Good Friday in the East Sussex village of Alciston, children gather to jump rope.
TEN CLASSIC JUMP ROPE RHYMES
From the streets of Philadelphia to the schoolyards of Beverly Hills these rhymes have been passed down and around for generations. As with handclap games, you may know different versions of these. Here are some of our favorites.
1. Blue Bells, Cockle Shells
(swing rope from side to side)
Blue bells, cockle shells
Easy ivy over
(on “over,” swing rope overhead and begin
normal jump rope swing)
Here comes the teacher with a big fat stick
Now its time for arithmetic
One plus one is?
(jumper responds) Two
Two plus two is?
(jumper responds) Four
Four plus four is?
(jumper responds) Eight
Eight plus eight is?
(jumper responds) Sixteen
Now its time for spelling
Spell cat.
(jumper responds) C-A-T
Spell dog.
(jumper responds) D-O-G
Spell hot.
(jumper responds) H-O-T
(when the jumper finishes spelling hot, swing the rope as fast as possible until the jumper misses)
2. Cinderella
Cinderella, dressed in yella
Went upstairs to kiss a fella
Made a mistake
And kissed a snake
How many doctors
Did it take?
(start counting jumps until the jumper misses)
3. Help
H - E - L - P
(The jumper jumps once for each letter as the word help is spelled out, and the girls turn the ropes turn faster and faster until she misses. The letter they are on when she misses determines what kind of jumping the jumper must then do.)
H—Highwaters
(rope doesn’t touch the ground)
E—Eyes closed
(jumping with eyes closed)
or
E—Easy over
(rope goes over slower than usual)
L—Leapfrog
(jump like a frog: crouch down,
then jump high)
P—Peppers (rope twirls quickly)
(The jumper then jumps in that style until she misses.)
4. Ice Cream Soda
Ice cream soda,
cherry on the top,
Who’s your boyfriend (or best friend)
I forgot
A, B, C, D, E, F, G, etc.
(When the jumper misses, the other players name a boy or best friend whose name begins with that