Back From My Blogging Hiatus

I am back! Shortly after my review of Let's Drive, my family took a month long roadschooling trip up and down the coast. Let's Drive definitely had my sons excited about the trip! When we returned we got ourselves back into a routine, although I remained on a blogging hiatus. Also in that time frame we had another baby and since then we've been adjusting to life as a family of 5, homeschooling, and just enjoying family time. Of course, we've still been playing SimplyFun games and now that we're back into a good routine I'm ready to get back to blogging about our SimplyFun adventures. I hope you enjoy our gaming journey and that my reviews help you find some games that are a good fit for your family. :)

Hit the road with Let's Drive!

Let me start by saying that S loves geography! We've been planning a road-schooling trip with another family for the past month and S is beyond excited about traveling. When Let's Drive arrived he was more than ready to open it and play as much as possible. I lost track of how long we played this game, but he loved every minute of it. It was great watching S learn new facts from the different states he traveled to. I also loved watching him work out his strategy on how to get from location to location in the least amount of moves.

The idea is to travel around the USA and collect destination cards with state facts on them, though you only have a limited amount of moves each turn so you have to make sure you use them wisely. If someone else lands on one of your locations you can get postcards from them too. Also, if you collect sets of destination cards you can get bonus cards which offer extra points, extra moves, and other fun things to make the game more interesting. The game ends when someone reaches 16 points, though we played to 32 the first time because S wanted to keep playing. The recommended ages are 8+, but if you have a child who is enthusiastic about traveling and geography I don't see why a younger age should limit anything. Do note that the pieces are small cars and the point chips are small so children who might put pieces in their mouths should be supervised during game play. This game is great for geography, learning state facts, and strategy.

If you would like to learn more about Let's Drive or to order please visit here. Feel free to ask me any questions you might have about this or any other games!

Family Favorite: Dreaming Dragon!

One of our family's favorite games is Dreaming Dragon. The idea behind the game is that the mother dragon is sleeping with her eggs. All of the lizards are in her nest space too and she won't be happy about that when she wakes up so your job is to help the lizards escape without breaking any of her eggs.

It is currently one of the only games we own that Z can actually play too so he is always thrilled when we pull it out for family game night. One of the other reasons that this game is popular in our house is that both boys can play it together without me being right there. They don't need me to read instructions or help with anything, so if they want to play a game and I'm in the middle of dinner, let's say, they can just pull it out, set it up, and have some fun. S is old enough to do the final score at the end to determine who wins too.

Game play is very simple. You set the dragon on the table, pile the lizards on top, then add the golden eggs on top of the lizards. Then each player takes turns collecting lizards using their pinchers. If any fall you don't get to keep them and if any golden eggs fall those reflect negatively on your score. Once all the lizards are off the dragon it's time to figure out the score. You take away one lizard for each golden egg that you dropped, then tally up how many lizards each player has left. The person with the most lizards wins. It's so simple and so fun! It's also great for hand eye coordination, strategy, and concentration while you are trying to figure out how to get lizards without dropping any eggs. The recommended age for this game is 6+ as there are small parts, but considering my 2 and 4 year old can handle it I recommend it for their age group too. **Disclaimer: If your child still puts things in their mouth supervision is required because the eggs are small and I'm sure a lizard could be eaten if someone tried. We don't want anyone to choke!**

If you'd like more information on Dreaming Dragon or to order please visit here. As always, I'm here to answer any questions!

Foodle Fun!

Today's game is Foodle. It is all about nutrition and making healthy choices. To play, everyone puts their game piece on start. There are question cards, which are mostly multiple choice or true/ false with a few open ended questions, and there are Foodle-Do! cards that when drawn dictate that the player perform some physical activity (marching in place, hopping, etc.). Basic game play is that a player rolls the die, then someone takes a Foodle question card and asks that person the question. If the player gets the question correct they move their piece however many spaces they rolled on the die. If they guess incorrectly they move back that many spaces. If a person lands on a Foodle-Do! space they have to draw a Foodle-Do! card and do the activity. The first person to reach finish wins. This game is recommended for ages 8+, which makes sense given the level of most of the questions, but I do have to say that S really enjoyed playing it!

Here are some examples of Foodle-Do! cards:

Flapping like a chicken!

"March in place to the count of 5"
"Flap your arms like a chicken 5 times"
"Run around the table 1 time"
"Pat your head and rub your stomach 5 times"
"Thumb wrestle with the player to your right."

Here are some examples of question cards to give you an idea of what is asked:

"True or false: Probiotics are dead bugs found in food."
"True or false: Bacteria in the digestive system are called microflora." 
"True or false: "It's not important for children to eat food high in fiber." 
"Which type of fat is better for you? A. Monounsaturated fat,  B. Saturated fat"
"Which vitamin helps you to see better in the dark? A. Vitamin A,  B. Vitamin B2"
"How many ounces of meat or poultry is recommended per day? A. 6oz,  B. 4 oz,  C. 16 oz"
"Do olives contain healthy fat?"
"Cashew nuts contain zinc. Does zinc inhibit digestion?"

S requested this game specifically today because we hadn't played it together before. I mentioned to him that it was meant for kids a little older, but he was undeterred. He ended up really enjoying himself. He loved having to perform Foodle-Do! cards, but he also really liked answering questions. There were some that you could see he just had no idea and was guessing blindly, but others he answered without hesitation and was right. I was pretty surprised, and pleasantly so since I thought the game was fun! I think the thing that S and I both liked most about this game was that even if we got a question wrong we learned something new. For S, winning is pretty big at this point in his life so when he loses in most games he gets a bit down on himself (we're working on this, of course), but with this game it didn't even phase him when he missed a question because he still gained some new knowledge. I ended up winning when we played today (not by much, I might add) and instead of feeling bad about it S just let me know that the next time we played he'd win. Then he went off to pick another game to play. That was a pretty rewarding moment for me to see how well he dealt with losing and I am so glad he asked to play this today!

Balancing while counting.

Marching in place while counting.

For more information, including a video, about Foodle please visit here and please feel free to contact me with any questions!

Fun with Unravel!

Another one of our new games is Unravel. This game is very cute! Basic game play is as follows: Someone rolls the die and everyone checks what color it ends up on. Once you know the color you find the matching kite and try to be the first one to follow the string correctly to the character flying the kite. Once a person thinks they know the answer they grab the character card and yell STOP. Whoever guesses correctly gets a pinwheel and the person with the most pinwheels at the end wins.

Now you may be saying that this game is too easy because after a while you just know where the strings lead, but the game makers accounted for that! So, to shake things up a bit the board is divided into 4 pieces and each piece is double sided. When a person correctly guesses the kite flier they get to choose one board piece to flip over, which alters the string layout. There is also an added element where there is a picture of a balloon and a picture of a bird on 2 of the sides. If the side where you can see the bird or balloon is visible, then when someone rolls the color of either of those things the players don't try to figure out the kite string but race to be the first one to grab the balloon or bird card. This game is really good for mental mapping, quick thinking, and color recognition.

S really enjoyed the game and he played it for quite a while. I didn't really partake in the guessing because I wanted him to have a chance to figure it out, but he didn't seem to mind that I was just watching and cheering him on. To keep Z happy during the game he was dubbed the official die roller and that worked out well too. Z would roll, we'd all yell out the color, and S would go to work trying to figure it out as fast as possible. It was fun for all of us, but I know S would enjoy it more to play with some of his friends. We may have to set up a few SimplyFun playdates soon!  Also, you may notice our dog in the background. She thought we were all crazy with yelling colors and we were clearly disrupting her nap...

If you would like more information about Unravel or to order please visit here. I'm also happy to answer any questions you might have!

After we cleaned up Unravel, Z wanted to play Tibbar's Tangrams. I posted a review on that game here. Of course Z is still a bit too young to grasp creating pictures with the pieces, but he really enjoys shouting out the names of the shapes at whoever will listen (including our dog) and then stacking them however he likes at that moment. It was really comical that day because each time he'd yell the shape at the dog, she'd lift her head in response and then when he'd go back to stacking she'd lay back down again.I'm just happy that he knows his shapes!

My boys are really enjoying all of these games and we're looking forward to a few more new ones in the mail soon!

Mirror Mansion Mania!

The newest game in our collection is Mirror Mansion! It is one of the games that I noticed before I became a consultant and just knew that we had to have it. Well, today it came in the mail and S and I finally got to play! It is exactly what I hoped it would be and S couldn't get enough of it. There were actually tears when it was time to stop playing!

The basic idea is that you have to find different treasures located around the mansion by strategically placing the mirrors so that you can see the one you're looking for through the viewing window, and your mirror movements are limited. The person who has the most jewels at the end wins. The board is double sided with one side showing reflection lines while the other does not. You have the option for basic play or advanced with the option to rotate the board to make remembering treasure locations a bit more challenging. This game is great for learning about reflection, angles, basic strategy, and memorization.

We played using the side of the board with reflection lines, which helped S get a feel for how everything worked. We also did not rotate the board because S is not quite there yet, but it'll be fun when he is! It did not take him very long at all to figure out how to place the mirrors to get the reflections working in his favor. I was impressed! Now, while several of his guesses on the locations of certain treasures were not correct his mirror placements to get to those locations were perfect. He was beyond excited when he did guess correctly though.  It was great to see him working out what angles he needed to use to get to where the treasures were, and of course his face lighting up when he found one was priceless!

This game has probably topped his favorite list for now, and just in case you were wondering what that list includes... His other preferred games are Pickles' Pig Tales, Clover Leap, and Digger's Garden Match. I reviewed those games previously here and here.

If you'd like to learn more about Mirror Mansion or to order please visit here. If you have any questions please feel free to ask. :)

Which treasure did he find?

Tibbar's Tangrams

Both of my kids like Tibbar's Tangrams. A while ago we bought the small blocks for S to use for school, but Tibbar's Tangrams pieces are big. The boys can play it and I don't have to worry about pieces getting lost! This game definitely gets bonus points from me for easy clean up!

Checking to make sure the rabbit was correct.

S loves that he can make "giant" things with them. It comes with a booklet of things the kids can try to make and the answers are in the back so they can check that they have the pieces in the right place. It's really cute. Z likes to watch S and enjoys stacking the pieces rather than creating pictures.

Making a squirrel

S already knows his shapes, but this game is really helping him hone his spatial awareness skills. He has to make sure he places the shapes in just the right spots to accurately represent the images in the booklet. Some images are more tricky than others for him, but he really enjoys the challenge of getting things just right. I can already see an improvement in his building abilities.

To learn more about Tibbar's Tangrams, watch a video about the game, or to order please go here. If you have any questions please feel free to ask!