Red Rover
contributed by Ann Mosconi

  In this game, sides were chosen at the beginning.  It was usually considered an advantage to have as many large people as possible on a side, so in the spirit of fairness, we often allowed the two smallest children to choose teams.  Once the teams were selected, they lined up holding hands facing each other across an area of 20 to 30 feet.  Hand holds had to be simple hand-to-hand; no wrist holding was allowed for reinforcement.  The team who was first started by shouting in unison:  "Red Rover, Red Rover, send *insert name here* right over!".  A common strategy was to call the name of the smallest child on the opposing team.  The person whose name was called then had to run as fast as possible toward the team who called him, attempting to break the handhold of a pair of children.  If he was successful in breaking through, he could select any member of that team to come and join his team.  However, as was often the case, the child was too small to break through, and ended up becoming a member of that team.  The game was won when a team was reduced to one member.  
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