My husband told me that a posting about a “girl game” was in the running around section, so I came looking. Not only that, but he knows I loved jacks as a kid and grew up in Chinatown, so he figured – ah – right up your alley. Anyway we played chinese jacks exactly the same way you did, only chinese mothers (and my mother) made the jacks just like little bean bags filled with rice. The rules are the same, but the materials different.