Home School Product Reviews

Great, like everything Timberdoodle sells!

Surprise, another great find by Timberdoodle!  I got this (Trucky 3) for my 3 yo to give us something fun and new to do during Christmas break.  He likes it a lot, but it’s a bit hard for him.  I think 4 and up will probably be better.  It’s very nicely made.  The only thing I can say is the games from this company (Smart Games) don’t come with good storage.  With all these little parts, I’m going to need to make a bag or something.  They come in a cardboard tray, but you’ll never get them back in the trucks like they were, at least I won’t, lol.  If you have a child who has done vision therapy and needs more work on visual perception, they’ll find this very challenging and beneficial, even if they’re older.

Logic fun for everyone

Anti-virus is fun as well as attractive and interesting.  It wraps up concepts from science in a logic challenge.  Our 4 year old is able to complete the starter challenges, and our older ones are challenged by the upper levels (our 3 year old just likes to play with the colorful pieces).  The way the pieces move diagonally as well as in groups adds to the challenge and makes it different from other logic puzzles.  The game provides an opportunity to discuss disease at the cellular level.  We added this to our “logic before lunch” sessions when we all take a logic game and complete as many levels as we can in a certain amount of time.  I wish we had 2 of every game because they especially enjoy competing against each other.

Love it! This is a great game to teach your children all about the history of the settling of our country, in a fun and easy way. Both our children, ages 5-11, and we parents love this game. It is fun to play, rewarding, educational, and a great deal for the money you pay. I highly recommend Settlers of America Trails to Rails to anyone who wants an indepth game to play with many ages, while teaching about things such as settling, creating towns, connecting towns, manifest destiny, and so much more.

A good toy for all ages

Camelot Junior is very popular in our house. I bought it for my 4 year old so that he’d have something fun to do during school time, but my older boys (ages 7 and like to play it, too. I like it, too, and will frequently turn to the more difficult puzzles in the back as I’m setting it out or cleaning it up to see if I can do them. Younger children (5 and younger) will need some help to do more than the first few puzzles, but it’s a high quality toy that can be enjoyed in many ways. My 4 year old will often start just playing with the blocks as he desires, and I can let him because the wooden blocks aren’t going to get worn our or lost like the small, plastic pieces in some other games. I also think it’s silly that the princess sometimes rescues the knight. My boys just always send the knight to rescue the princess.

Creative way to learn critical thinking skills

We purchased Anaconda for our 9-yr-old son as a way to help him focus on learning critical thinking skills, as he loves critters. While he may complain about completing a math assignment on paper, he will sit quietly for a long time and work on these puzzles, figuring out which pieces must go where to complete the snake. I have been adding these types of puzzles to our homeschool curriculum so that we can all have a puzzle to work on during “game time”. My son and I race to complete our puzzles, and my other children are occupied with other puzzles. My younger children enjoy just playing with the Anaconda pieces – putting a snake together without following the diagram. These games are a refreshing change from book work and I am looking forward to continuing this aspect of our schooling.

Andrea

Get ready for fun!

This (Hide and Seek Safari) is our family’s first foray into these types of puzzles and I LOVE this one! Question is, who is going to love it more, kids or parents?! My husband and I put the kids to bed and then sat and played with this game for an hour or more! Deceptively easy. The colors are bright and engaging, tiles easy to put in place, my littles (2 & 3) enjoy trying to hide different animals. The older two kids (7 & 5) are just in love with it. A family winner! A bonus is how portable it is – the top piece slides back to reveal a hidden compartment that the booklet and pieces fit in…Amazing! Another great Timber product.

Challenging and fun

I bought this logic game (Titanic) with my 13 year-old in mind, but sadly, it never made it that far … my 9 year-old snagged it, and hasn’t let his sister get hold of it yet! This is a challenging, thought-provoking game that uses a neat historical tie-in to spur interest even in kids who don’t normally “go for” logic puzzles. The card challenges progress in difficulty, and many at the upper levels have left our older family members stumped. Definitely a winner!

Is there anything better than seeing your fussing fighting kids running around the house laughing, playing and working in teams? Capture the Gag has done that in my home. My children ages 3 to 9 did not seem to be able to play a game without fighting…but with Capture the Gag they laugh and work well together and enjoy their playing time with their siblings. This is well worth the money and also promotes good teamwork between groups of kids. 2 thumbs up for Capture the Gag!!!!

I have always wanted to know more about chess, and my children have been interested too. We have bought other chess teaching games before, but they didn’t hold their interest. Once A Pawn A Time is impressive right from the start. It is beautifully packaged, and had the children interested immediately! We have been using it in the evenings during family time, with our older 4 children, ages 13-6. We just finished the first book and this game is a winner in my book! What a wonderful way to introduce chess through a story! The characters are funny, the price is great, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in teaching, or learning chess!

Geopuzzles

Helpful with geography memorization

My 6 and 4 year-olds have both done the Asia and Europe puzzles. The six year old does it in no time at all and the 4 year old takes her time but gets through it as well. They are both in Classical Conversations where they need to memorize 165 points of geography. The puzzles have helped them memorize the geography extremely well. The six year old has it memorized completely while the 4 year old has about half of it. I have a friend who works for the foreign service who will be serving in Turkmenistan next year and my kids actually know where that is!