Code Master Review

   Code Master is a single player game by ThinkFun games.

   You have a few different tokens, blue crystals, a portal and an avatar.

   It also comes with a scroll book and a map book.

   Each page in the map book has a few different levels on it. Green is beginner, yellow is intermediate, blue is advanced and red is expert. Each level will will show you how to set up. For level one, you will put your avatar on the five space, the portal on the three space, you will use two red and two green moves and you will use scroll one.

   Once you set up your board, you will start your programing. The goal is to get your avatar to the portal by using only the number of moves and colors that you are given. On this level, you will get four moves, two being red and two green.

   If you look at the map, there are more lines and colors than you will use. You have to plan out your moves so that you end up at the portal with no moves left.

   On this level, I programed a red move, green move, red move, green move.

   Move your avatar along the lines. First was a red move

   Then a green that went across the top of the map.

   another red

   and then the green that brought me to the portal. If you make a plan and it doesn't work, simply start your program over.

   Some levels have blue crystals. Place the crystal on the number indicated.

   When you stop on the space, simply slide the crystal onto the avatar's staff when it stops on that space.

    If there is more than one crystal, you may only pick up one per visit to that space. You may need to go past it a few times to gather them all. You will notice some of the paths on this map are made with arrows. This indicates you can only go that direction on that path.

   Some of the harder levels will use a little more complicated scroll. The hexagon spaces are used for conditional tokens.

   If your scroll has more than one space for a conditional token, you must decide which token you want where. The blue hexagons represent the number of crystals you have. If you have the number indicated, continue on along the path with the green check mark. If not, follow the path along the red X. The orange tokens are Troll tokens. This is asking if there is an orange troll on the space you are currently on. The purple tokens are the same as the orange, only they are asking if there is a purple troll on your space.

   Place your conditional tokens on your guide scroll and plan out your program.

   This is a great game to get your mind going. My oldest loves to pull this game out and work his way through. The beginning ones are rather simple, but they get harder quickly. I have yet to get all the way through the book. If you or your child enjoy programing games, this is a great one to play. Perfect when you only have a minute or are on your lunch break at work.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers

Fun AND Educational...Where Do I Sign Up?

If you haven't noticed, my family and I love games. We also love to learn so it seems natural to combine learning and games.  Here is the thing though:  kids KNOW the difference between an educational game and a just for fun game.  I can buy a game made to teach something like multiplication facts or sight words.  Guess what--my kids might not want to play it because it is school work not fun.  I knew there had to be a better way so I started to use the games my kids love to practice academic skills.  And it works!  They love playing them and I love that they are learning! I'm not sure why some kids don't like educational games...but I'm glad I have figured out the trick!

Here is what you do to turn a fun game into an educational game:

1. Decide what skill you want to practice with your child.  It could be multiplication facts, sight words, vocabulary words, history facts, state capitals, geography, elements of the periodic table, etc.  It can be anything your child needs to practice.
2. Create flash cards of the information your child needs to learn.  You could also purchase flash cards from a store if available.  I've used multiplication cards and alphabet cards.  I've also just made my own.  For example, if your child is learning states and their capitals, make flashcards that have a  state on one side and the capital city on the other. 
3. Choose a game (or games) your child loves.
4. Play the game with your child with this twist.  Before each turn, have your child answer a question on the flashcard.  If your child misses a question, tell him  the right answer.  Keep using that question until he answers it correctly and then move on to another.  If you want to be tough, your child loses a turn if the question can't be answered.  I would only do this once your child is pretty comfortable with the information.  Continue to play the game as usual, answering a question before each turn.  If you really want to impress your kids, make sure you answer questions too! (And yes, you lose a turn when you get it wrong.)

As you can see, it is so easy to turn any fun game into an educational experience.

In the past, I've reviewed the game Bugs in the Kitchen.  Click her to learn more about that game. It is a fun fast paced game all three of my kids enjoy.  I've used their love of this game to my advantage as their teacher.  One way I've used this is to review sight words.  I made flash cards of sight words.  My child had to read the sight word before she  can take her turn.  I love this game with the educational component because speed is important.  Many  kids love the added challenge of being fast.

You can also use games like Candyland, Connect 4, Memory, Go Fish, Uno, Skipbo, Slapjack and War.  Really you can use any game that is simple and short.  I wouldn't use a game like Mononopoly because it would just take too long with the added component. The best part of this is that you don't have to go out and buy a game for every skill your child needs to practice.  (Hooray for another budget friendly way to help your kids learn!)You can use any game to practice what your child needs.

Give this a try at home and feel free to share how you turned your child's favorite game into an educational game!

Timeline Review

   Timeline is an educational game for two to four players by Asmodee games. It plays in about fifteen minutes.

   Inside, there are 109 cards

   On one side, it has a picture and says what it is. On the other side it has a date added.

   To set up, shuffle the cards and deal out as many as indicated by the number of players. For a two player game, both players get six cards. Keep the date side face down. Place the top of the draw pile between the players, date side up.

   To begin, choose one of your cards and place it in front of the card in the middle if you think it happened before the event on the table. If you think it happened after, place it after.

   If a player guesses wrong, the card gets put back in the box and they draw a new card.

   As you can see, the timeline will get longer and the dates closer together. The goal is to get rid of all of your cards before your opponents.

   This is a fun little educational game, that can also be used as flash cards. It's a great way to help teach children about history. There are many different categories of cards you can get such as inventions and discoveries. The directions are simple so it's easy enough for children to play it alone or to teach a friend. As far as replay ability, if you play it a lot, you will eventually memorize the cards. That would make the game pretty easy for you, but think of all of that new knowledge you will have!

Felt Activities

   One thing my kids love to play with is felt boards. A couple of years ago, we were going to go on a 10 hour drive to my aunts house for vacation. Having three small boys, we needed ideas of how to keep them occupied so we would all survive the long drive. I started looking up ideas, and found someone that had done felt boards for their kids. I thought that was a wonderful idea, so I made some. They were a huge hit and the boys still play with them to this day. They are great for those days when you just need a little bit of quiet time.

   To begin, I searched online for a template of what I wanted to make. This time, I wanted to make a gumball machine to help my three year old count.

   You can either cut out the pieces of the template to trace, free hand it, or do what I do and tape the paper to a window so you can see through the felt and trace it that way.

   Once you have it all traced out, cut out the pieces. If you want to sew or glue them together, make sure you leave extra around your cut outs. For example, the white piece can be a complete circle and then sew or glue the red pieces onto it. I decided making the machine could be part of the fun.

   You now have a gumball machine.

   To make the gumballs, pick out the colors you'd like to use. I wanted to make twenty gumballs so I grabbed five colors. Scraps of felt are perfect for this part.

   Decide how big you want the gumballs. I used a soda lid to trace the circles.

   Cut out all of your gumballs

   Next, I printed off the numbers on a piece of card stock. This will help the numbers be a little more sturdy.

   Cut out out all of your numbers. If you have a straight edge cutter, it makes this job a lot easier.

   To get the numbers to stick, hot glue the numbers onto another piece of felt. The color doesn't really matter since you won't see it anyway. Be careful when doing this, hot glue on fingers is rather painful! Once they are all glued on, cut around the edges of the card stock.

   You now have a felt gumball machine to help with counting!

   Some other ideas you can do are:

   You can make a little city or even just a road with some cars. Cut out strips of black, add some yellow lines (I glued mine on for ease of play) and cut out however many different cars and trucks you'd like.

   My kids used to be really into potato heads. Cut out some brown potato shapes and then use your imagination.

   I don't know about your kids, but my oldest LOVES anything space right now. That includes Star Trek. So this summer, on a day when there was "nothing to do", I decided I would make him some new felt cutouts. He was beside himself with excitement. These didn't take too long to do and you can make them as detailed as you'd like. I cut him out a yellow circle he could use as either the sun or a planet and a couple of red circles. I added a little touch to the red circles so they would look a little more planet like.

   And lastly, don't forget about games. Tic Tac Toe is a great game for kids. It's easy to learn and not hard to make. Just cut out four strips and a few squares in two different colors. Now you have a game for on the go.

   Felt activities are a lot of fun and you can take them anywhere! They are pretty easy to make depending on how detailed you want to get. The boards we made for in the car was just a piece of felt taped to some cardboard. You can get as fancy as you want with making a board. Sometimes my kids just play with them on the table without any felt under it at all. Use your imagination and most importantly, have fun with it!

Spot It! is Spot On...

Imagine this--you walk into a room to see a family of all ages staring intently at a table.  It is so quiet you can hear the refrigerator running  or possibly, the sound of heavy concentration.  Beads of sweat drip from your 4 year old's brow as she narrows her eyes in fierce anticipation! ALL the kids are quiet (and NOT because they are in trouble). Then all of a sudden 3 arms fly out and yell out nonsense like "Dinosaur, Cat, Question Mark."  You see a pile of hands gathered in the middle of the table--no one willing to give up their spot. It is like two football teams trying to retrieve the ball after a fumble.  After some tugging and pulling,  you untwist the hands, to find whose is on the bottom.  Everyone smiles and congratulates the winner (for the most part) and gears up for the next round.  That is what a game of Spot It! looks like and everyone in your family will enjoy it.   It says that it is made for Ages 7 and up but my 4 year old had no problem learning to play it . In fact, she can even beat me! My nine year old daughter describes this game as “INTENSE I-spy."  I asked my 7 year old boy if he like this game and he responded, "I don't like it, I LOVE it!"  Also, up to 8 people can play at a time.  So let's teach you how to play it so you can have an evening of intense fun!!!

Spot It! comes in a small circular tin about 3 inches in diameter.  I love this because it means it can be stored easily and taken places (think car trips, waiting rooms, and family vacations). Hooray for any activity that keeps troublemakers, I mean,  impatient hands busy! The tin contains 55 cards and an instruction booklet. 

The goal of this game is to “spot” the matching symbols on two different cards.  Every card has 8 symbols on it.  Each card shares one symbol with one other card.  The matching symbols are the same shape and same color but the size may differ.   On the two cards below, you will find a green question mark.  These cards have a match.  If the cards both had green questions marks but one is large and one is small, they are still considered a match.  That is what makes it tricky to spot a match!

The Spot It! Instruction booklet contains 5 mini-games that you can play.  Try them all and choose what you like.  Our family has even been known to create our own. The best part of each of these games is that they only take 1-2 minutes to play!  This fast paced game keeps everyone’s attention! Today, I will tell you about my family's three favorite mini games and a version we imagined up ourselves. I have set each of these games up to be played for 4 people but remember, up to 8 can play!

Mini game 1: The Tower

Deal one face down card to each player and place the remaining pile of cards on face-up in the the center of the table.  These remaining cards are the draw pile.   

The object of this mini game is to collect the most cards.  Every player should flip their card over at the same time.  We do this by saying, “Ready, Set, FLIP!”  Of course, the kids love to yell this as loud as possible! Once the card is flipped, it becomes the first card in each players personal pile.  Each player tries to find a match between the top card of his or her personal pile and the one in the draw pile. Remember, shape and color will be the same but the size may differ. If a match is found, the player must call out the name of the matched item. 

For example, if the player found an igloo on his/her card AND the card in the center, the player would say “Igloo.”     Here is the close-up so you can see the matching igloos.

The player would then take the top card of the draw pile and add it to his or her personal pile.  The only time a card is removed from the draw pile is when it matches the top card of a personal pile.  When that player takes the card on the draw pile, a new card is revealed. The game continues as each player tries to match the card on the top of his or her personal pile with the one in the draw pile. The person with the most cards wins! 

Younger children may have trouble calling out a few of the symbols because some are words like ART or STOP. Art is always green so my 4 year old calls it  “the green word” and we accept that.  

Mini Game 2: The Well

This is like the Tower in reverse.  Put one card face-up in the center of the table.  Deal the rest of the cards facing down to the other players. This is each player's personal pile.   Depending on the amount of players, this can result in an uneven amount of cards being dealt to the players.  To make it fair, I just make sure everyone receives the same amount because the object of this game is to get rid of all your cards first. 

We begin the game by shouting, "Ready, Set, Flip" and all players flip their entire personal pile over so all cards are facing up.  The first player to spot the same symbol on the top card of his or her personal pile AND the card in the middle, calls out that symbol's name.  Then the player removes the card from his or her  personal pile and places it in the middle on top of the previous card.  Now all the players try to match the new top card with the one on top of their personal pile.  The first player to use all his or her cards is the winner.  We usually go until only one person has cards left so we can award 2nd or 3rd place as well.  My 4 year old does pretty well at this game but is always beat by her 9 year old sister.  When we play for 2nd or 3rd, the 4 year old loves it  because she gets to be a winner too.  The best part of this mini-game is the smile it puts on my spunky 4 year old's face! 

In this version of Spot It!, you could institute a handicap to level the playing field when you are playing with multiple age groups.  If older children and adults are playing, they could start with more cards than children 5 and under.

Mini Game 3:  Hot Potato

First, deal one face-down card to each player.  Place the remaining cards off to the side for later.  This version is played in rounds.  The object of the game is to have the least amount of cards after all the rounds have been played.  Everybody flips over their one card and holds it face-up in the palm of their hands.  Since I have a 4 year old with little hands, we just set one card in front of each player.

Each player tries to find a match for his card in another player's hand.  If a match is found, the player calls out the match's name and places the card on top of the matching player's card.  For example in game of 4, player 1 finds a matching ladybug in player 3's hand.  He yells, "Ladybug" and places the card on top of player 3.  Player 1 waits for the round to finish.
  

Now let's say player 2 finds a match for his top card in the hand of player 4.   He then places both his cards on top of that match.  Player 4 now has to use whatever card is on top to find a match on the remaining player's card.

This continues until only one person has ALL the cards. The person with all the cards saves them in his personal pile and sets them aside.  Repeat with 5 or more rounds.  Tally up each persons' cards and the person with the least cards in his personal pile wins.  I like this version of the game because it plays to different player's strengths.  My 7 year old is usually the best at this one and he loves the chance to beat his older sister. 

There are two more mini-games included in the instruction booklet.  Try them out and tell me how you like them.  They are tons of fun too. There is one last version I'd like to tell you about.

Smack Down!

One of the best parts of Spot It! is that you can also make up your own games.  You won't find Smack Down!  in the instruction booklet because my family made it up.  It is similar to Slapjack. The oldest person plays the dealer first.  The dealer draws one card and chooses any symbol on that card.  

For this example, let's say he chooses the Dragon.  The dealer will continue to draw cards, placing them on top of the first.  When another players sees a card with the Dragon, he or she smacks it and yells "Dragon Smack Down."  He or she then takes all of the cards and places them in his or her personal pile and is the winner of that round.  This may or may not be accompanied by a victory dance and some gloating.  The winner of each round becomes the dealer;  the dealer does not try to smack the symbol and only deals out the cards.   This continues until all the cards in the draw pile are gone. The person with most cards is the winner.  

If you haven't noticed, I really love this game because it is so full of possibilities.  Here are a few more ideas I have on how to use this versatile game:

• Give a child a card and ask him to write a story and draw a picture using EVERY picture on the card.  (Say hello to creativity and laughter!)
•  Give each child several cards and a piece of graph paper.  Ask them to create a bar graph on the graph paper representing some of the symbols.  
• Have a group of 4 or more sit in a circle.  Draw one card and choose a symbol.  Start a story using that symbol. Pass the card to the next person and he or she must choose a different symbol on the same card and add to the first person's story.  Continue around the circle until everyone has had a turn and ALL the symbols have become part of the story. 

I could go on for hours about all the wonderful possibilities found in a tin of Spot It!  If you like this game, keep in mind there are lots of versions available (Alphabet, Numbers, Shapes, Major League Baseball, Splash).  To find out about these versions, go to Blueorange Games.  Now that I have played the original, I can't wait to try the other versions as well.