Favorite Summertime Game: Capture the Flag
Capture the Flag is the best game ever.
It has running, hiding, chasing, strategy, and in our case – battling. We play all year long in the same park in North Austin and enjoy how the landscape changes from summer to fall to winter to spring. We hide in the wildflowers in spring – we climb trees in the winter, we slide around in the mud in autumn, and of course we sweat through the summer. Dads, moms, sons, daughters, and occasionally passing mountain bikers join in the fun. And it is fun. Crazy fun.
The basics of the traditional game are:
Establish a playing area with boundaries.
Divide the playing area in half and choose sides.
Each team defends their half the playing area as well as a flag.
The goal is to go into the other team’s playing area, steal their flag, and bring it back to your side.
If an opponent is on your side, you can tag them and send them back to their side. Sometimes people play with “jails” where tagged players have to stay until freed.
(And here is how our game is different:) You can play with foam swords instead of tagging. If you hit your opponent in the torso or legs, they must go back to their side. Firm rule: No hits on arms, nothing neck or up, and no feet. So far only one dad has gotten hurt from the swords – no kids. And it was only a flesh wound. (He took it well.)
For a tutorial on how to make the swords, check out this video!
About the Author
David Sewell McCann
David Sewell McCann fell in love with spinning stories in first grade – the day a storyteller came to his class and captured his mind and imagination. He has been engaged in storytelling all of his adult life through painting, film-making, teaching and performing. Out of his experience as a Waldorf elementary class teacher and parent, he has developed a four step method of intuitive storytelling, which he now shares through workshops and through this website.
