My friendly UPS man came by today and dropped off a package filled with 6 new board games! Hooray! I had to make the kids promise to finish their lunch and clean up a little and we tried out four of them in about an hour. Here are some initial impressions:
Right Turn, Left Turn – Quick little card game, but not an easy one for my 5 year old. You have to be able to differentiate between left and right based on the direction a traffic cop is standing on a card. I modified it quickly to give each of them a couple of turns, but this one is going to need some work I think.
Number Chase – Another light card game, you lay out 50 numbered cards and one person selects one, writes it down. The other players guess what card it was. If you guess wrong, you flip over the card that you guessed and the writer has to answer the question truthfully to help lead the guessers to the card. This was fun and teaches some basic algebra terms like range as well as other basic math rules.
M is for Mouse – This was a little more complicated that I had thought. You have cards in your hand and cards on the table. Each card has two pictures on it and two letters. You have to match them up. If you have a fish on your card and a card on the table has an F on it, then you matched! Both kids needed some directional help to figure out how to make matches and there are three variations in the rules to help mix things up and change the game around.
Gopher It – This was our favorite one of the four we played. You are a gopher trying to collect food for the winter. There is a garden on the table (mixed up batch of cards) and you have to make groups of six of one of the food types. You draw a card from the garden and either keep it or keep going, up to four times. If you draw two of the same type of food in a row, you are done and have to discard all of the cards you just flipped over. If you get more than 6 of one type of food, they spoil and you have to throw them all out! Once you get 6, you get a gopher trophy for doing good work. Collect three trophies and you are ready for the winter and win!
These are all designed by Reinhard Staupe and published by Bright Idea Games and Playroom Entertainment.
Beyond Candy Land 