Seeing them too engrossed playing with their gadgets makes me think how much fun they are missing compared to what I had experienced during my childhood. Immediately, I asked my househelp to get us a chalk so we could play Piko.
Piko is a very old game where mostly girls would play. The players stand behind the edge of a box, and each should throw their “pamato“, a flat stone or a brick chip.
Here are the mechanics of the game, which I pulled up from Angelfire.
1. The players stand in front of a rectangle no.1. Each player takes turn in tossing his pamato inside the 4th rectangle’s dividing line. The player who tosses his pamato closest to this line gets to play first. This is called manohan.
2. Only hops and skips are allowed using either the left or the right foot. Landing on both feet is only allowed in the area or areas considered as home or “bahay” of a certain player who has earned it after successfully finishing the game. No other player can step on this area.
3. The 1st player tosses his pamato to rectangle no.1. Neither the ?player nor the pamato must touch the line otherwise the player losses his turn.
4. The player then tosses his pamato to rectangle no.2, 3a, 3b, 4,5a, 5b and 6.
5. The player then plays the game all over again this time starting from rectangle no. 5.
6. After he has played in the entire rectangle, he tosses the pamato strong enough to pass over rectangle no. 1. Hops passing rectangle no. 5 to 1 then jumps over the pamato.
7. Player picks up the pamato. With his back turned against the rectangular play area, he tosses his pamato towards the direction of the play area. Where the pamato lands, that area becomes his home or bahay.
8. The game starts all over again for the 1st player. The rest continues with the game they have left off.
9. The player with the most number of homes, wins.
So far, the girls enjoyed it. This precious moment actually stopped me from finishing an online task about the best jazz guitar. Anyway, how ’bout you? What Filipino traditional games have you taught your children so far?
Note: Please excuse my drawing, I think I missed the 2nd rectangle and only drawn 1. Just the same, we managed to play the game.
Gadgets are bad they made kids couch potatoes glad u are able to teach them this game!
That’s why I don’t want them to miss these games. Next in line, jackstones heehee!
ay nice! maybe I should do this with Dindin. I haven’t taught her traditional Filipino games yet because honestly, I wasn’t so good in playing games when I was a kid. LOL