Tant Fant

After teaching the boys the Native American Stick Game, we worked on Requirement 2, learning ten words in a different language than your own.  I decided they'd learn 10 different ways to say thank you.  I chose ten very different languages (Spanish, French, German, Afrikaans, Swahili, Urdu, Arabic, Hebrew, Mandarin and Japanese.  By far, their favorite was Afrikaans.  (If you don't know why, watch this short video.)

Then we moved on to our second game, Tant Fant.  Tant Fant is a strategy game from India that is a little bit like tic-tac-toe (but much more fun).  To play, you need six stones (3 of one color and 3 of another) and this board.

Set the board up by putting your stones along your "home row," which is directly across from your opponent's home row.  Then decide who is going to go first.  Trevor and his buddy used roshambo.

Take turns sliding one rock at a time along one segment of a black line.  You cannot hop over other rocks, nor can you travel somewhere there isn't a line.  

The goal is to get three in a row anywhere other than your own home row.  This boy is reacting to his partner's win (the green rocks form a diagonal).

Tant Fant is a really fun game that is easy to learn and quick to play.  It's very portable, as you can literally draw the board in the dirt and use found objects like rocks or acorns to play.  Each of the dens that has passed through my station so far has been enthusiastic about playing this during downtime at future Cub Scout campouts or other events.  

Now all that's left for the boys to earn their Language and Culture Belt Loop is to interview someone who grew up in a different country.  We have that planned for an upcoming den meeting, so that will be another one Trevor can add to his collection.