Has your homeschooler ever made a game with their own rules? This weekend Emmett invented a couple of games using chess, checkers, and mancala beads. The mancala beads are the jellybeans. Both games are fun and he really thought them through. The Reign of Jellybeans is the chess version. And the checkers version is called The Jellybeans Strike.

In this post:

About The Reign of Jellybeans
How to Play The Reign of Jellybeans
Bonus Jellybean Game

About The Reign of Jellybeans

If you’ve ever played chess, you will have the basics to play Emmett’s chess-mancala game mashup. In this one, the goal is to reign over the board with the most points using “jellybeans.”

How to Play The Reign of Jellybeans

Set up the chess board like you would normally do for chess. Then, on the remaining squares, place the beads in an alternating color pattern.

The goal is to get the most points before the game ends. Checkmate is not the objective here. Instead each piece is worth points. Capturing pawns are worth 10 points. Rooks, knights, and bishops are worth 20 points. The “jellybeans” however reign in this game. Collecting your color of mancala beads is worth 100 points and the other color is worth 50 points. When all the jellybeans are off the board, the game is over.

Bonus Jellybean Game

The Jellybeans Strike is Emmett’s other mashup game creation. In this game, the checkers are targets and the beads are the attacking jellybeans. You collect the beads using the checker pieces at the start of the game. Once all the beads are off their board you use as ammo to strike the other player’s checker targets off the board.

Set up the board just like you would for checkers. Then fill the remaining squares with the mancala beads in an alternating color pattern.

The goal of this game is to collect ammo in your color to use against your opponent, and to take their ammo so they don’t have as much to attack you with. If you collect ammo that is not your color however, you can’t use it either.

Share Your Game Creations!

If your homeschooler invents a game, Emmett and I would love to learn it too! Send your homeschool game creations via email to Ashley@EmmettsExpeditions.com for a chance to have your game featured on the blog.