G is for Games

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We like to play a lot of different games with each other every once in a whiel (well, almost every day). Some of our latest favorite games are listed below.

1. Homeschoolopoly ~ This game is like Monopoly, but uses real homeschool companies to purchase like Rainbow Resource Center, World Magazine, and Write Shop. The kids love playing this game and even the 6 year old can play along. Note: This game is no longer in production.

2. Tenzi: I stumbled on this game last year while browsing Amazon. This is a fun, fast paced game. The basic way to play is everyone gets ten dice and starts rolling them at the same time. Quickly look at your roll and decide which number you are going to go for. (For example, if you have more 3's than any other number, that's what you want to go for.) Put all your dice with that number aside,collect the remaining dice and quickly roll again. Whoever gets all ten of their dice on the same number first yells out “tenzi” and wins. I also saw this Tenzi card pack and bought it so we could have more ways to play.

3. Spoons: My kids play this card game with just a pack of cards and some plastic spoons or straws or whatever we have available. We don’t have the official game, but they know how to play and play it while watching television at night.

4. Go Fish: My six year old likes to play this easy card game and gets her brothers and sister to play wit her every once in a while.

5. A few others we play, but not on a regular basis are Sorry, Life, and Battleship.

I love when they pull out a game to play and actually play the game and get along while playing. It also nice to enjoy each other’s company and sit down at the table at night and play a game instead of being on electronics or watching television. I am sure many more can be added t this list but these are the games we play the most.

I’m linking up at:

Hopkins Homeschool

Wisdomantics Game Review

My family and I love to play board games. I was given the opportunity to review a game called Wisdomantics.

What is Wisdomantics?
Wisdomantics–New King James Version (NKJV) is an interactive DVD board game for players of various faiths who desire to gain the vast wisdom of King Solomon. Wisdomantics-NKJV utilizes the proverbs of Solomon and blends chance, knowledge and strategy to create a fun experience while you learn! The game’s intent is to bring individuals together to learn how to cope with numerous situations in a fun and relaxed environment. Inside the box you’ll find 2 interactive DVDs with 400 questions, score cards, blessing cards, and more!

For 2-4 plates, ages 12+. It is available on the website for $29.95.

Below is a video that explains how the game is played:



My Review:
We are regular church attenders and my children think they know their Bible. Even though the game says for ages 12 and up, my 11 year old son and 9 year old daughter wanted to play. I played the game with my three older children. My 12 year old son did great with understanding the game and answering the questions. My 11 year old did okay. My 9 year old din't get many answers right, but she had a fun time learning. This was a fun game to play and we look forward to playing this game many more times.

Enter the giveaway using the Rafflecopter below.

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"Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”): Many thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing this prize for the giveaway. Choice of winners and opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation. I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post.

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Snake Oil: Party Potion ~ Review

We love playing board games and card games in our house. So, when I find a new to us game or am introduced to a new game, I want to learn more about the game. We recently reviewed Snake Oil - Party Potion from  Out of the Box.

Out of the Box offers many fun and educational games. Snake Oil – Party Potion is a fun, fast paced game. You are able to play the game in about 30 minutes. This game is geared for ages 8+, but can be used with children as young as 6 if they are reading. It is for 3-6 players and only takes 5 minutes to learn how to play. Snake Oil – Party Potion is available for $14.99.

The name Snake Oil was first introduced in America in the 1860’s. Chinese laborers would rub the oil, that was made from water snake oil, on them after a hard day’s work. Products that contain water snake oil are still used today. In 1917, a sample was tested and found to contain no actual snake oil. As a result of the false product claims and misleading labels, the name “Snake Oil Salesman” was born.

How to play Snake Oil – Party Potion:

The game comes with 14 customer cards and 112 word cards.

Step One: Each player draws 6 word cards and one player chooses to be the customer.



Step Two: The remaining players take about 30 seconds to combine two of their word cards to create something for the customer. Each player then has to persuade the customer that his product is the best. The customer can cut off the pitch after 30 seconds.



Step Three: After each player has made their pitch, the customer chooses the best item and that player wins the customer card. The word cards used that round are discarded and each player draws enough cards to bring their total back up to six. The player to the left of the customer becomes the customer.



Winning: The player with the most customer cards, after each player has been customer one time, wins.



You can check out a video on the directions here.

How we used the game and What we thought:

My kids and I played this game several times throughout the review period. We usually played during the afternoons after we finished our school work for the day. Since there were only 4 of us, the game play went fairly fast. We never played for more than 30 minutes which was great when you don’t have a lot of time to sit down and play a game. My kids, ages 12, 11, and 9, loved this game. They loved trying to convince the customer to pick their product. They didn't like that the game play went fast though. They wanted to keep playing one more time. I enjoyed playing this game with my kids. It was great to see them laugh and have a good time with each other. This is a game we will keep around and play during the cold winter months.

The Presidential Game ~ Review

Take a glimpse into our home and you can usually find someone in our house playing a board game. My boys love to compete against each other and play a board game any chance they are given. When I was given the chance to review The Presidential Game, I knew my boys would love it before we even received it.

About the game:
The Presidential Game is a board game that includes red and blue chips, a tablet to keep score, die for each player, and politics cards. This game is appropriate for ages 11- adult and for 2 or more players. Each player or team decides what party affiliation they will have during the game.  The players each roll one dice to see who goes first.  After finding out which player goes first, each player or team will then decide how many weeks to campaign or fund-raise. A 30 week game should last approximately one hour. With each roll of the die, the player must decide if they are going to go to the states for fundraising or campaigning. If the player decides to fund-raise in one of the four states listed, they are allowed to pick one politics card. They must either play the card right away or they can keep it for a future turn.



How we used the game:
When it first arrived, we wanted to play right away. One of my boys was finished with his school work for the day, so I let him play me first. We unloaded everything, read the directions, and began to play. My boys, ages 10 and 11, have also played this game whenever they have had the chance. I used this game as a great opportunity to once again go over the election process with my sons. They did remember quite a bit from last years election. They knew it took 270 electoral votes to become President. They also knew that a person must campaign and fund-raise in each state in order to get a person’s vote. This was also a great time to introduce my (almost) 8 year old daughter to the election process. She did not play, but she did like to watch us play.

What we thought about the game:
We enjoyed playing The Presidential Game, but had a little trouble understanding the directions at first. The directions that came with the game did not specify how many dice to roll to fund-raise. I did find online instructions that specified to only roll two die. The directions also did not say if only one color could be on each state. For instance, if red had 5 votes, but blue wanted to place 6 votes, are we suppose to remove all of the red? We did play it both ways. Our first few games, we kept both colors on each state. After I read the FAQ page online, I realized that maybe we are suppose to remove the color that is not in control of the state. I was also confused on how to use the paper tablet that came with the game. I wasn't sure what to subtract and what to add, so we ditched using the paper and brought up the web calculator on my iPod touch. The calculator worked great on my iPod, but I kept forgetting to change what week we were on, so the first time, we only played until someone had 270 electoral votes. All other times, we kept up with what week we were on and it made the game play run much more smoothly.

 

Overall:
We really enjoyed playing this game once we got the hang of it. My boys love competing against each other. They try their best to strategize to win their 270 electoral votes by the end of the game. We give this game 5 stars!

The Presidential Game is available for $35 plus shipping on their website.
Click here to read what the others on The Schoolhouse Review Crew thought about the game.