Culture | Playground culture

Covid-19 has given children new words and ideas to play with

The pandemic has made play at once more modern and more old-fashioned

“AT SCHOOL, I’VE invented a game with my friends,” says Griffin, a nine-year-old Australian boy. The rules of Corona Tip are simple. One child chases the others, touching as many as he can. Anyone caught is “in corona”. They join the chaser in pursuit of those remaining, as do all the children they tag in turn—a neat demonstration of exponential growth. The game ends when everybody has been caught.

This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Jabbed you”

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From the February 5th 2022 edition

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