An old wooden skill toy is popular again with Hawaii kids, a small feel-good story about screens losing ground to face-to-face play.

• Kendamas are back in the stands at high school football games, with kids trading tricks instead of watching the field.
• Parents and older students remember the last craze in the mid-2000s and are surprised it returned.
• Schools are leaning in — one campus took 250 orders for school-branded kendamas and set up tournaments.
• New limits on phones at school gave kids empty time to fill, and the toy filled it.
• The side effect: more kids talking across grade levels instead of staring at screens.

Outlook: Expect more school tournaments and merchandise as the trend spreads while phone restrictions stay in place.