My Eldest, is 9 years old, he has never been overly kean on reading, writing or anything on that side of the education, he struggles with it alot and it just seems no matter how hard he tries it is not easy for him. He does however love mathematical puzzles and visual learning. Many children learn at different rates and in different ways, my daughter who's 8, is the opposite to my eldest son, she loves reading and writing, and spends her days with a pad of paper and pens in her hands, constantly writing out notes and stories, her weakness is maths and logic puzzles, where her brain seems to have easily found its way of working language it struggles with more mathematical problems.
With them being so close in age the main problem to their different approach to learning has always been finding things which encourage their individual strengths and things that they individually enjoy and can be good at, without comparing them. It has always been a concern for me that as Chloe is great at reading and writing she seems to get lots of praise and encouragement as she is always producing a story or such like, she excels at a lot of typical games as her reading skills are higher she can easily pick up any game and read through the rules and get to grips with it, Jake struggles and would rather not read instructions and stumbles along. I find his confidence is knocked a lot when his younger sister out performs him.
So when Toys r us sent us Cannibal Monsters by Smart games, I was kean to give this a try.
Jake instantly picked it up, it was exactly his type of game, it has no long winded instructions the concept is easily grasped, and as it is a visual learning game Jake excelled at it, he quickly progressed through the first levels and thoroughly enjoyed the praise, it is a game which promotes all the skills he loves which was great to see and gave him a tremendously self confidence boost.
Chloe who struggles with everything this game promotes was eager to give it a try with the bright colourful monsters it is an appealing game. Jake was very enthusiastic about it which encouraged Chloe to give it ago.
Where she struggled alot more than her brother, she did manage to grasp the concept after a few minutes and started to be able to get through a couple of levels.
Where I feel Chloe ultimately will benefit educationally by this game as it really does help with all her weakness, I feel Jake benefits tremendously by it also as it is something enjoyable for him and promotes his strengths.
That aside this is an amazing game by Jumbo games, it is very well made, the game board doubles as a storage case, which is very sturdy this is a timeless game too, something that can be got out quickly and take up them boredom moments, it would be a great game to pack for holidays and trips away to dispel them rainy afternoons, where very young children will not grasp the concept of this game it is a great game to engage everyone else in the family, you'll find mum and dad eager to give the next level a try and Grandad will want to make sure he's the first to finish! If you love puzzle games which really help to get the brain clogs moving, then this is a sure fire hit!
Be sure to take a look at the Toys R us Facebook page where any updates on the availability will be sure to be mentioned! Priced at £14.99 I feel that it is great value for money, it really is a well made game which is sure to last for years!
heres my video review
Hi, if the player can see which monster can fit on top of the others, can you explain then what actually is the thinking process that needs to be done in the game? I'm having hard time understanding what so special about this game from what I read on the net.
hi thanks for commenting, the process is in what sequence you move the pieces, not which fit ontop of the next, you can only jump monsters in verticle or horizontal lines (not diagonally) you can not jump over other monsters, but have to sort out the pattern to result in one tower. The starting positions make it increasingly difficult with only one solution of movement resulting in the ability to create the final tower when you follow the rules of only jumping up down or across and having to jump onto a monster who is inline, with the correct fitting pattern, and not jumping over the top of any other monster it is a very good iq building process of forward thinking strategic pattern finding, the other smart games are all great too.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteif the player can see which monster can fit on top of the others, can you explain then what actually is the thinking process that needs to be done in the game? I'm having hard time understanding what so special about this game from what I read on the net.
hi thanks for commenting, the process is in what sequence you move the pieces, not which fit ontop of the next, you can only jump monsters in verticle or horizontal lines (not diagonally) you can not jump over other monsters, but have to sort out the pattern to result in one tower. The starting positions make it increasingly difficult with only one solution of movement resulting in the ability to create the final tower when you follow the rules of only jumping up down or across and having to jump onto a monster who is inline, with the correct fitting pattern, and not jumping over the top of any other monster it is a very good iq building process of forward thinking strategic pattern finding, the other smart games are all great too.
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