Playing Hearts With the Kids

Ethan and I have been teaching the girls how to play the card game "Hearts."  While they are starting to get the basic hang of things, they are still in need of a lot more practice before they can amass any expertise.  And they both have some interesting tendencies that they cannot seem to remember to break.

For instance:

Madeleine has now, TWICE, led a hand by putting down a King of Spades.  For those unfamiliar with "Hearts," the Queen of Spades is basically the card of doom.  If you are forced to take a trick with the Queen of Spades in it, you're stuck with a walloping 13 points.  In a game where 0 points is the ideal, taking 13 in one fell swoop is a big blow.  Therefore, leading with a card HIGHER than the Queen of Spades is a big risk, since the player of the highest card is forced to take any points played upon that trick.  Both times Madeleine has led with the King of Spades, she has looked up triumphantly, and then, upon noticing the look of dismay on Ethan's and my face, has nervously asked, "What?  Was that a bad move?"  She has then, both times, let out a panic-stricken cry of "WaitWAITWAIT CAN I TAKE IT BACK?!?"

The answer was no, both times.  But both times Ethan also refrained from giving her the Queen of Spades, even though he had it in his hand.  He was not so kind to Julia, who, upon receiving it from him for the second time, let out an anguished wail of "WHYYYY?!?"

Julia's tendency, on the other hand, is to play her card second to whoever led, instead of waiting to play her hand after the person to her right has gone.  This has occasionally allowed another player to change his or her intended play, since they see that Julia has already put down a higher card, or has not run short on a particular suit.  Despite our repeatedly telling Julia not to play out of turn, she continues to throw down her card as soon as the leader has put the first card down.

And EVERY.  TIME.  this is what she says:

ETHAN, ME: Don't play out of turn, Julia!
JULIA: UGH!  I FORGOOOOOT!


Seriously.  Every time.  It just happened again as I'm typing this.  Ironically, the one time she was actually supposed to go second, she was spacing out and we had to shout to her to take her turn.