Madeline's House

Subject: General
Category: Exploration
Ages: 4 to 8
# of players: 2 to 4
Time to play: 30 minutes
Mechanics/Game Type: Roll and Move

Ratings (1 to 5)

Educational Value: 2
Gaming value: 4
Aesthetic value: 4
Price value: 3
Ease of play: 4
Younger adaptability: N/A

My comments:
Madeline's House reminds me of a cross between Candy Land and Highlights Magazine's Hidden Pictures. You don't know if you are going to move forward or back until you find the hidden object! That's what makes this game exciting for the kiddos and they do enjoy it while they are young enough to play it.

The box, board and components are made of heavy duty cardboard that will last through multiple children.

I tend to be a little tough when evaluating educational value. Does this game teach anything to a four year old that any other game won't? Not really. Color recognition is key but most 4yo's already have their basic colors down. It is a really fun game though and does teach the basics of fair game play, taking turns and following instructions which is so important during the early years of game playing. If you are just looking for something fun to get your kids used to playing games, this is a great choice because it is a bit different than your typical roll and move board games.

BoardGameGeek.com link to this game:
http://boardgamegeek.com/game/11739

Corduroy's Birthday Games

Subject: Preschool
Category: Colors and Shapes
Ages: 3 to 6
# of players: 1 or more
Time to play: 10 minutes
Mechanics/Game Type: Pattern Recognition

Ratings (1 to 5)

Educational Value: 4
Gaming value: 4
Aesthetic value: 4
Price value: 4
Ease of play: 5
Younger adaptability: 3

My comments:
This is such a good quality made game from Ravensburger, I really love it for my wee ones. I have played it with each of my children when they were learning their colors and shapes and the game is still in excellent condition after 7 years of use! There are ten different variations of the game so you can really keep the toddlers coming back to this one.

Ravensburger says this game is for 3 -10 year olds, I have to disagree with that range. A ten year old would not be interested. This is strictly for the preschool/kindergarten crowd so I have adjusted the age range in the description. There are some small tokens that present a choking hazard but you can easily play this with a two year old if you play the non-competitive games which do not use the tokens.


BoardGameGeek.com link to this game:
http://boardgamegeek.com/game/21192

Trans Europa

Subject: Geography
Category: World
Ages: 8 and up
# of players: 2 to 6
Time to play: 30 minutes
Mechanics/Game Type: Track Building

Ratings (1 to 5)

Educational Value: 1
Gaming value: 4
Aesthetic value: 3
Price value: 3
Ease of play: 4
Younger adaptability: 3

My comments:
Trans Europa is a fun game that can be played in rounds because it is so quick to play. My 10yo enjoys playing it often and in fact I imagine any child who is able to read could catch on fairly quickly so don't take the age guide too seriously. To win a round you must build railroad tracks connecting five cities that are randomly dealt out at the beginning of the game. Those who are unable to complete their line must tally points and move their locomotive down the scoring track on the right side of the board.

Unfortunately, if you are buying this game for educational purposes, you will be dissappointed. The board map has little to no detail. It's one redeeming quality is in the cards. Each card has a city and an accompanying landmark pictured on it so you could potentially get some good review in by using the cards as flashcards.

Aside from the lackluster gameboard, TransEuropa is made well, does not have an oversized box (which is one of my personal pet peeves) and best of all it has wooden playing pieces. Gotta love wooden pieces, they just have a quality that you cannot match with manmade materials.

BoardGameGeek.com link to this game:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/16267

BibleMan Adventure Board Game, The

Subject: Math
Category: arithmetic
Ages: 4 to 7, 8 and up
# of players: 2 to 4
Time to play: 30 minutes
Mechanics/Game Type: Roll and move, pick up and deliver

Ratings (1 to 5)

Educational Value: 3
Gaming value: 3
Aesthetic value: 3
Price value: 4
Ease of play: 3
Younger adaptability: 5 (Game has two level design)

My comments: "Why is Bibleman listed under Math?" you ask. Though Christian values are integral to the game as you try to "rescue" kids and bring them to the church, the advanced game teaches great math skills. You roll and move 1 of 4 heroes (Bibleman, BibleGirl, Cypher, or Coats) around the board. When you land on the Docks, School, Refinery, Villain's Lair, Church, or BibleMan's Cave, you choose a villain card and do battle. In the basic game, you simply spin one of two spinners and if you land on the Bible icon you win--you pick an adventure card with a child that you have saved. In the advanced game, each hero and villain has a number next to 5 attributes (faith, love, truth, joy, patience, forgiveness for heroes; doubt, fear, lies, sorrow, rage, bitterness for villains.) You spin the U.N.I.C.E. spinner for the hero and the L.U.C.I. spinner for the villain to determine which attribute and what bonus will be used for the battle. Next you roll a red and blue die to determine the final sum for both the hero and the villain--whichever is higher wins. If the hero wins, s/he picks an adventure card and saves a child or gets armor enhancements for the next battle. You can see where all the math comes in! In either game, after collecting 6 saves, you drop the kids off at the church and then return to the BibleMan cave to win.

What is really great about this game is the 2-level design so that even younger gamers can enjoy it (my 4 y.o. has no trouble with it.) The board has an interesting elevated cardboard center with the spinners around which you place the standard playing board--interesting, yes, but the tabs on it keep the playing board from lying flat. My boys love battling the villains. Minimal reading is involved, and readers can read for non-readers without affecting the game play.

BoardGameGeek.com link to this game: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/19138

Granny's House

Subject: General
Category: N/A
Ages: 4 to 7
# of players: 1 to 6
Time to play: 30 minutes
Mechanics/Game Type: Co-operative Play

Ratings (1 to 5)

Educational Value: 4
Gaming value: 4
Aesthetic value: 3
Price value: 5
Ease of play: 5

My comments:

Should you use the rope to climb over that fence in your way or have the dog dig a hole under it? What about that sleeping bear, maybe we should leave him some candy in case he wakes up?These are things you will discuss and have to agree on with the other players in this wonderful co-operative game. There is only one pawn and everyone has to work together to get to Granny's House.

I estimate an average of 30 minutes for game play however because of the many obstacles, this varies greatly. I have found that when many obstacles send us back to start (making the game last more than 30 minutes) the children lose interest but this only happens rarely.

The 1986 version that we own is still around and kicking although the box is definitely falling apart. I've included a couple of photos because the link to BGG below is for the 1985 version and it looks quite different.

One more thing of note. All picture cards have both English and French words printed on them making this game suitable for readers, non-readers and fun review for those learning one of these as a second language.

BoardGameGeek.com link to this game:

http://boardgamegeek.com/game/7917

Last Word

Subject: Language Arts
Category: Vocabulary
Ages: 8 and up
# of players: 2 to 8
Time to play: 30 minutes
Mechanics/Game Type: Word Based

Ratings (1 to 5)

Educational Value: 4
Gaming value: 3
Aesthetic value: 3
Price value: 2
Ease of play: 3

My comments:
This is one of those speed word games similar to Discovery Toys' Whiz Kids with a small twist. Players are given a letter and subject and have to think of the first word that fits the category starting with the given letter and continue to come up with as many words as they can before the timer goes off. Those who come up with the last word advance around the gameboard. The fun and exciting part of this game is the timer. It goes off randomly so nobody ever knows when it will alarm.

While our family did consider this a fun and challenging game, it got old after a few plays and we had to put it away for a couple months before wanting to play again.

BoardGameGeek.com link to this game:
http://boardgamegeek.com/game/17709

Australian Rails

Subject: Geography
Category: World
Ages: 10 and up
# of players: 2 - 6
Time to play: approximately 2 hours
Mechanics/Game Type: Crayon Rail System

Ratings (1 to 5)

Educational Value: 5
Gaming value: 4
Aesthetic value: 5
Price value: 4
Ease of play: 3

My comments: What started out as a potential never-to-be-used game has quickly become a family favorite. It is certainly not something you can just pick up and start playing right away if you are new to crayon rail games put out by Mayfair Games. It has an extensive instruction booklet and requires extra set up time the first time you use it so that you can put the stickers on all the load chips. Plan plenty of time to learn how to play this game. Better yet, pay a neighbor kid to learn how to play the game and then come over and teach you and the kids:)

That said, once you have played it one time you will get the hang of it and I hope, find it quite enjoyable as we have. The idea is to build a rail system across Australia and ship goods from city to city. What makes this game exciting is this: Strategy is involved in that you want to get your railroad built without spending too much money building across rivers and mountains and be able to start shipping the most valuable goods as soon as possible. When playing with several people it becomes more challenging because only a certain number of tracks can be built into and out of the smaller cities. Lastly there is the disaster element that can happen randomly, like rain season, dust storms and floods causing tracks to be destroyed and shipments to be delayed.

I purchased this game to help my daughter with her geography so I was very particular about how accurate and detailed the map/gameboard was. I am impressed with this one. The board shows the location of many cities and geographic attributes of Australia. From a gaming perspective, I find it very helpful to have the goal and building costs listed right on the board. I will most definitely be purchasing more of the crayon rail games to use in the future!

BoardGameGeek.com link to this game:
http://boardgamegeek.com/game/935

Lewis and Clark Adventure Game, The

Subject: History
Category: US
Ages: 8 to adult
# of players: 2 to 4
Time to play: 90 minutes
Mechanics/Game Type: set collection, roll and move/trivia

Ratings (1 to 5)

Educational Value: 5
Gaming value: 3
Aesthetic value: 4
Price value: 5
Ease of play: 4
Younger adaptability: 5 (Very easy to coach youngers, give token instead of asking question)

My comments: The value of this game is in the board--beautifully drawn and loaded with information about the Lewis and Clark expedition. Even each space has some bit of historic fact along with the action. It also comes with pretty beads for trading (they're small, so watch out with little ones around!) My only complaint is that the front and back of the Skill/Chance cards and Transportation cards look so similar that it is difficult to tell if cards are right-side-up.

Each player is dealt 3 cards; each card is a mode of transportation (moccasin, keel boat, horse, canoe.) You need the correct transportation to progress over certain parts of the board; you can also trade or buy these cards. You roll and move, then do what is stated on the space, including drawing a skill/chance card. If you land on a compass, you spin the spinner (built into the board) to indicate which of 4 questions to read. If you get it right, you get a token for that category. You must collect all 4 tokens and go around the board to win. There's a beginner and an advanced trivia card set.

This game has a lot of great educational information. As a game, it can be quite long if people do not land on the trivia spaces, so you end up going around the board again (see tip below). It involves a little math, too (when you trade in one mode of transportation to buy another and figure out what balance is owed.) As with any trivia game, it's life is limited.

One tip: after a player has gone once around the board, let s/he choose which category of question to answer rather than spinning; otherwise, the game gets excessively LONG as you try to land on a trivia space AND spin the color you need AND answer the question.

BoardGameGeek.com link to this game: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/6970

Chronicles of Narnia--The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe Game

Subject: Language Arts
Category: Literature
Ages: 8 to adult
# of players: 2 to 4
Time to play: 60 to 90 minutes
Mechanics: roll and move

Ratings (1 to 5)

Educational Value: 2
Gaming value: 3
Aesthetic value: 4
Price value: 4
Ease of play: 3
Younger adaptability: 5 (Very easy to coach youngers to play)

My comments: This is the game based on the Disney movie. It includes 4 detailed playing pieces, and a nice board (though you have to annoyingly stick stickers on the dice.) Each player has different special abilities detailed on a well-drawn thick card. Players start at the lamppost and try to go around the board back to it, though you move wolves or the White Witch along with the characters. You also earn Aslan tokens (through rolling or card draw) that will help you use your special abilities, or turned you back from stone.

While this is roll and move, it has more complex movements, like moving the bad guys, and choosing to roll to move or roll to get tokens. You can use your special abilities cooperatively or competitively, so it is not too hard to modify this into a deliberately cooperative game.

Not too much educational value, other than improving gaming skills and hopefully inspiring reading. It is interesting enough that the kids will play it for several years.

BoardGameGeek.com link to this game: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/20028

Blokus Trigon

Subject: Math
Category: Geometry
Ages: 5 to adult
# of players: 2 to 4
Time to play: 20 minutes
Mechanics/Game Type: Abstract strategy

Ratings (1 to 5)

Educational Value: 5
Gaming value: 5
Aesthetic value: 5
Price value: 4 (while board is sturdy and well made, it is still plastic, as well as the piece-holder)
Ease of play: 5
Younger adaptability: 5 (If a child knows same color and point vs. side, s/he can play!)

My comments: I'm starting out with one of my favorite games. Blokus Trigon consists of a hexagon game board into which fit 22 geometric shapes made out of triangles (see BGG link below for pictures.) You take turns placing pieces such that: 1. You must touch your own color, and 2. You must connect to your other pieces using the point of a triangle rather than the side. The object of the game is to place as many pieces as possible on the board. The two-player version requires each person play 2 colors; the three player version eliminates the outer-most ring of the hexagon.

This game builds spacial perception and thinking ahead. The game is easy to set up, easy to play, and the colors and pieces are visually appealing. This game is one that will be enjoyed for many years (so long as you don't lose the smaller pieces!)

BoardGameGeek.com link to this game: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/21550

About our reviews

By uncommon games we mean most anything but "classic games" and other readily available games that are probably owned by you or someone you know.

Be sure to use the search box at the top left corner of the screen to find a game title. Use the list on the right sidebar of the blog to find games by age or subject.

Our game reviews will have the following template:

Subject: Things like math, language arts, and such. Also "General" for games not relating to an academic subject.
Category: Not all subjects have categories. Bible, for example, does not but Math has Arithmetic, Geometry, Time, Money.
Ages: For what ages is the game is appropriate
# of players: As the name implies...
Time to play: How long it takes to play a typical game
Mechanics: This relates to how the game is played (roll and move, bidding, tiles, card draw, and such.)

Ratings (1 to 5) These are the reviewer's opinion--please comment if you disagree! We sometimes don't agree among ourselves. 1 is poor, 3 is average, 5 is excellent.

Educational Value: How much you will learn.
Gaming value: How well is the game designed to play.
Aesthetic value: Colors, graphics, and details
Price value: Quality of the components, and how many potential years of play per child based on the price paid
Ease of play: How quickly you can learn to play and/or set up to play
Younger adaptability: How easily the game can be adapted for younger players

We will follow the above information with our own narratives regarding the game.

BoardGameGeek Link: This is a website of avid gamers that focuses on the gaming aspect only, not the educational aspect. If you really like gaming, click on the link and check out the information here. They also have pictures of the games.

Please let us know what you think--we pray we can bless each other in this endeavor! Check out the link to our companion blog Thoughts About Gaming and Homeschooling

Welcome to Games for Homeschooling

After searching the web in vain for information about using commercial games for homeschooling, I decided to start this blog. Our family loves to play games, and my 3 boys have learned many skills from that--and we've only just begun! I have recruited a few of my game-playing friends to help me write reviews specifically for homeschoolers wanting to incorporate gaming into their home education.

Though this is a modest start, I hope, over time, with each new addition, this blog will grow into a useful database for homeschoolers.

Happy gaming, and God bless your homeschool!