Teaching Children American Mahjong

Teaching Children American Mahjong

Are you having trouble teaching your child American Mahjong?  Do you lack the patience (or desire) to teach your child American Mahjong?

Let's break it down for you using the Mini Mahjer method.  Try breaking your teaching into a few main groups (and keep in mind that a complete instructional guide is included in every set of Mini Mahjer games and every starter set of Mini Mahjer).

Breaking it down......

Step One:  Learn the tiles! 

  • Flip your Mini Mahjer box around and you will find all of the tiles clearly displayed.  Pro Tip:  Leave the box on the table while you play so that children can reference it at any time.
  • Teach them that there are three "families" of tiles if they are not familiar with the word "suit"
  • Don't forget to tell them that each "family" is married to one special dragon.
  • Any "F" on the Mini Mahjer Card means you can play ANY FLOWER
  • When you get to the WINDS, all you need to let them know to start is that a N on the card = North, S = South, E = East and W = West
  • Jokers?  If your child is familiar with UNO by Mattel, I like to reference the "Wild Card" in UNO and explain from there that the Joker can be anything you want it to be!

STEP TWO:  Learn the Mini Mahjer Card

  • Choose your section:  Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced
  • Read the specific rules for your section (one box under the title)
  • Learn the sections:
    • `Mini Mahjer sections align with traditional sections on the National Mahjong League Card (for example, section 2468 on the National Mahjong League Card is the same as section "Even Steven" on the Mini Mahjer card).
    • Teach children where they can only play the numbers printed on the card and where they have flexibility to use other numbers!
    • Most importantly, make sure to explain that lines in "all one color = all one suit" and lines in "multiple colors = multiple suits"

Step Three:  Simplified Charleston

  • In Mini Mahjer, The Charleston is simple!  Your child simply selects one tile to trade with every opponent at the table!

You are READY to play!  Further information on the game will be learned as you start to play!  Once you begin play, you will start to explain the process of "PAUSING" the game and "CALLING" for a tile that you need!

Your children will be playing in NO TIME!  They catch on very quickly.  Trust us on this and trust the Mini Mahjer method to help them understand quickly!  Bonus....Mini Mahjer is now available on Amazon so you can get it right away!  Check out the link for it here.

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