Howdy lanux. Interesting. I learnt my variant from my grandfather, he called the game pennies and nickels. I've seen it included with pegboard type games as well. Nothing new under the sun it would seem. Thanks for sharing.
-Mikes Software Co
I used to teach outdoor eduction, and this was a puzzle I used to do with kids using carpet tiles.
I have also seen a version called Frogs (jumping from lilly pad to lilly pad).
Many years ago I coded (though goodness knows where it is) a 'Towers of Hanoi' puzzle which you may want to add to your collection:
Three posts and a pile of tyres on one of them. The tyres are different sizes stacked largest on the bottom to smallest on the top. The puzzle is to move all the tyres to another pole with the rules: you can only move one at a time, you cannot put a larger tyre on a smaller tyre. Different numbers of tyres make the puzzle easier and harder. An extension is can you predict the minimum number of moves possible for any number of tyres ...
Here is an online
Java vased version and if you want the mathematical background to the problem click
here (but don't cheat - see if you can work it out
Again this is a good physical puzzle - especially if a group of kids have to do it in silence!
Another classic one is Nim ... see
here for an online Java version (seems to work best in Internet Explorer)