Smart Games

Froggit

Froggit is a multiplayer strategy game for families or children for two to six players.  Froggit utilizes game play similar to checkers to get your frogs to the other side.  The pieces are fun and children enjoy trying to get their frog to the other side of the board without getting grabbed by the fish.  Froggit encourages friendly competition and thinking ahead within game play as well as critical thinking about where to move on the board. Froggit is appropriate for kids five and up and perfect for families.

Jack & The Beanstalk

Jack and the Beanstalk is a unique puzzle game for preschoolers.  Jack and the Beanstalk can be a single player game or done in a team.  Players must match the challenge pictures by flipping pieces down the beanstalk.  Jack and the Beanstalk focuses on spatial awareness and critical thinking to see how the pieces will land as they flip down from the top.  Kids loved to see how the pieces flip and quickly picked up what would happen as they flipped down from different heights.  With a wide range of challenges, Jack and the Beanstalk grows with you and creates continuous fun.

Smart Farmer

Smart Farmer is a great way to get kids thinking outside the box.  Working on spatial relations, patterns and critical thinking, Smart Farmer uses farm animals, water troughs and fence pieces to create the challenge of separating the animals from one another using fencing and making sure that they all have water.  This game can be challenging, even for adults!  I'm glad to booklet of challenges ranges from beginner to advance.  This is a great way for kids to build confidence and problem solving skills in a fun way. 

Coral Reef

Coral Reef is a compact puzzle game designed to be played on the go.  With simply four puzzle pieces and a magnetic board, Coral Reef engages kids to find the correct pieces to cover the fish in a series of elevating challenges.  A new twist on hide and seek, players must find how to place the pieces on the board so that the fish on the challenge card on the only fish visible.  Coral Reef encourages visual and spatial relation learning in a fun and addicting way.  Coral Reef is perfect for players age four and up.

Brain Train

Brain Train is the perfect game to get young minds thinking.  Combining trains, shapes, colors and pattern recognition, Brain Train is several steps above the shape sorter that children are used to.  The objective is to fit a series of shapes into the train so that the train can move.  Each train car has certain shaped slots and the shapes themselves are in different combinations, some tied together, some separated.  The challenge booklet goes from beginner to advanced with easy challenges showing how colors are lined up to difficult challenges showing where only one or two colors should be in the train.  My three year old son was enamored with the Brain Train and quickly picked up on the beginner challenges.

Color Catch

Color Catch is a fun brain-teaser game that enhances skills in logic, colors and visual perception.  As kids try to place the frogs and geckos on the color board they have to make sure to match the color pattern in the booklet and make sure the animals that are supposed to catch an insect, catch one.  This game is great for on the go, it can be packed up all in a neat case, perfect for kids five and up to challenge their brains.

Quadrillion

Quadrillion is a fun but challenging problem-solving puzzle game that can be played with one player or a team.  Players must complete a puzzle by filling in all the spaces with the different shaped bricks, it reminded us of Tetris!  Our team of educators enjoyed the different levels that they game can be played on from less challenging to more challenging in order to reach a wide age range or build on skills.  As we played the game, we enjoyed the easy set-up and compact size.  Quadrillion also worked on a variety of skills such as spacial relations, shapes and area as well as team building, creative thinking, perseverance.  We will be using this game in classes and camps to work on problem solving and team building.           

Penguins on Ice

Penguins On Ice is a demanding puzzle game that can be played with one person or a team.  Players must find out how to fit all the penguins on the ice board as shown with puzzle pieces that are able to shift shapes.  This game is able to be adjusted for different levels and age groups.  Penguins On Ice took the concepts of spacial relations, area, critical thinking and teamwork to another level as we watched ideas grow and solutions arise.  Compact, portable, great for the road or to get brains warmed-up.

Trucky 3

Trucky 3 is a block games aimed at the preschool and early childhood ages.  Children are given the problem of how to fit certain blocks into a truck without the blocks spilling over the top. This game has different levels as well and can help to reinforce concepts such as shape, size and color and then move on to spacial relations and fit.  We were excited to use this within our Preschool as a facilitated activity.

Color Code

Color Code is a coding game that uses different color and shape disks to solve a problem.  Players must figure out the order in which to place the disks to recreate a picture.  From easiest to hardest the variety of challenges grows with age and ability level and works on a diversity of skills such as color, shape, order of operations, orientation, coding and problem solving.  Our educators loved this as a puzzle challenge in order to get students' brains working.

These games were received for free in return for an honest review.