How do you play 'jacks'?

[Mopsy]

Ds brought home a set of jacks today, a small gift from his teacher for working well. Only trouble is, never having known how to play them I'm at a loss....can anyone help please!
thanks, Mopsy x

Dredging up deeply buried memories (so may well be wrong); I think one of the games we used to play was to start by placing them all in a pile together then bouncing the ball, during the bounce pick up one jack and then catching the ball again. Repeating with 2,3,4 etc up to the total number of jacks. Ideally the throw, pick-up and catch should be done with one hand but we used to make allowances for small hands.

I'm pretty sure another game involved balancing jacks on the back of 1 hand then trying to flip them up in the air and catching them but it's very hazy..

Thanks Twink; one happy boy

Twink, that's how I remember it. But had to keep all the jacks in the catching hand at the same time.

I played jacks a lot as a child, and that all sounds about right. I think as you master the easier tasks, then you create harder ones like picking up the jacks without touching/moving the other ones. Throwing the ball in the air and picking up the jack and catching the ball before it hits the ground etc..

I seem to remember we started the game by holding all the jacks, throwing them up in the air and catching as many as possible on the back of our hand. Only those that fell to the floor had to picked up by bouncing the ball and picking up a jack and catching the ball all with the same hand.
And as Twink says, then repating the whole process pickingu p two jacks at a time, then 3 then 4 etc.
Oh God I want some Jacks now I used to love playing them in the playground.

Viv - thats how I remember it - but didn't you also, once you'd caught the first lot on the back of your hand then throw those up in the air, turn your hand over quickly, and catch them in the palm of your hand. Only then could they be put to one side. Any dropped from that manouvre had to be picked up the same as the rest.

I'm not entirely convinced my memory is correct on that though, as it's far more years than I care to think about since I last played jacks!!

Tetley, you're quite right, I think you did have to throw them back into your palm - gosh my memory is slowly returning (I think!!)

Oh memories!! We used to play this all the time as primary school! It all sounds right to me. I remember progressing to not letting the ball bounce at all. We used to play it with stones in the garden too - throwing a stone up: no ball so no bounce!

What a lovely gift for a teacher to give a child for doing well at school. Some children are so into computer games, playstations, etc. they have no idea of the enjoyment that can be gained from playing jacks, skipping ropes, "two balls", etc. My ds (5) loves his playstation, but he also loves playing simple "catch" in the garden with a tennis ball. Bring back more of these traditional games for children, I think.

Found this site which has the rules to loads of games - including jacks!

What evryone has said sounds right to me too except that the game was played over a series of levels....so you picked up 1 jack at a time with each throw of the ball. Then next stage was to pick up 2 jacks, 2 jacks & the last one. then pick up 3 together, then 4 together & finally five. Then next stage meant the throwing and catching on the back of your hand, throwing again & catching in the palm. any left had to be picked up the previous way. going through the levels on single, pairs, 3, 4 & 5 etc. My way my actually be wrong but it made the game last longer so it may just be worth it to give your son some extra enjoyment?

Thanks Dixie I'll pass that on now he's mastered the basics! M x