If you are reading this, then I’m going to assume that you have been taught how to read from a young age.

If you look back on the way you were taught, chances are that you’ll recall more lectures and boring exercises more than anything else. In the last few years though people have started to take a somewhat different approach to early education, preferring to use educational games rather than traditional exercises. This tendency isn’t without cause; many studies have demonstrated that humans, children especially, learn better through engaging activities, especially if they are presented in the form of a game.

While some games may focus more on the educational aspect of things, others prefer to concentrate more on the “fun” aspect; Zingo is a game that manages to walk the fine line between both, being equally engaging and educational for children.

How Zingo is Played

Before looking into the game itself, I would like to warn you that it does contain small parts which represent a choking hazard, meaning it shouldn’t be used by children of less than 3 years of age.

In any case, Zingo basically has 3 elements: boards, tiles and the zinger. Each player (the game can have up to 8 people playing) gets his or her own board consisting of 9 tiles. At every round, a player presses the zinger, a plastic box, which then spits out two “mystery” tiles.

The goal of the game is to match the mystery tiles to your board, and to claim a tile a player simply has to call it orally. The player who fills his or her board the fastest wins the game.There is a total of 72 different picture tiles and 8 boards.

The boards actually have two sides: yellow for children who don’t really know how to read yet, and the red side is for the older ones who have already developed some skills. Each tile has a duplicate, giving everyone two chances to get what they need. Needless to say, there are many possible board-and-tile combinations to go through, ensuring that every game stays fresh and new.

What’s So Great About Zingo

So what’s there to write home about here? Well, for starters Zingo is capable of keeping children distracted better than any television set… and I’m not joking.

Kids love to move fast, be loud and compete with each other, and that’s precisely what the game offers them; they are up against each other to see who can finish their board the fastest and they need to use their voice to claim the tiles.

In turn, this means that their brain is constantly at work, trying to match the mystery tiles to what they see on their boards… which actually brings us to the next point: how Zingo fares from an educational perspective.

What Zingo Teaches Children

So what does this game teach them exactly? Well, for starters it teaches them to matching as they need to find the tiles corresponding to the ones on the board. It teaches them words recognition as each tile is a labeled image of something simple. Seeing as how they need to remember what is located where on their boards, Zingo also helps children to improve their memory as well as their concentration.

Last, but definitely not least, Zingo is a social game which makes children interact with one another, teaching them the ropes of social interaction (such as patience, respect and sportsmanship), something they are definitely going to benefit from in the future.

As you can guess, this game wasn’t only designed for readers… as a matter of fact, it was designed as a tool parents could use to help their children start learning about reading. Mainly, it is going to help them learn how some basic words are spelt, and it will even improve their vocabulary repertoire.
 

What the People Have to Say About Zingo

So what do those who have tried Zingo have to say about it? Well, as is usual for me in these situations, I like to go on Amazon and see what the people who have reviewed the product have to say.

At the time this is being written, Zingo has received 290 reviews and garnered an average rating of 4.8 stars out of 5. Only 2 people have given it one star, with one of them complaining that the game isn’t really suitable for eight year-olds, but that’s Amazon’s fault seeing as how their description doesn’t exactly match the one on the box. Another person complained of receiving the game in Russian, which made it difficult to play… but that can be chalked up as a shipping error.

In other words, pretty much everyone is ecstatic with Zingo, having nothing bad to say about it.To purchase this game (or learn more about it), you can go to the one of the following links below.

Educational games have been around for a long time and despite how uncool they are considered to be, most of us are guilty of having played, and even enjoyed some of them, at least the famous ones such as Scrabble or Monopoly.

Like most of us can remember though, after a little bit the games became really boring for us kids, and looking back at it now, I see that it was due to one reason: the game wasn’t good at making us spend our energy… of which we had a lot.

However, as I was looking over the educational toys which have been put on the market for our kids today, I came across Bananagrams, and it seems to me that it actually presents a solution to the afore-mentioned flaw.

How Bananagrams Works

The game is very fun and simple. Here’re Bananagrams rules. The basic goal consists of creating your own crosswords using the 144 available tiles, with the number of possible players ranging from 2 to 8 and the recommended age being 7 and up. The game first starts by placing all the 144 tiles face down on the table. Subsequently, the blocks are distributed depending on the amount of players present, with a certain amount left on the table, referred to as the “bunch”.

Once this stage has passed, any player may say “split”, at which point the players need to flip over their tiles and start creating their own words as fast as possible, connecting the tiles horizontally and vertically. There are no turns as everyone tries to get it done at the same time.

Once a player runs out of tiles, he or she says “peel”, at which point they are entitled to take a tile from the remaining ones face down on the table. When this happens, every other player must also take a random tile from the bunch.

If a player is stuck with a hard letter or one which he or she doesn’t know how to use in the present situation, then they may put it back in the bunch in exchange for three random letters. When this happens the player must declare it by saying “dump”, and it should be noted that this has no direct effect on other players.

And so, you keep on playing the game that way until there are no more tiles left in the bunch. The first player to use all their tiles to form words wins and shouts “Bananas!”. At this point, if the other players choose to, they may inspect the winner’s words for spelling mistakes and to make sure they didn’t use proper nouns, which are not allowed for obvious reasons. If a mistake has been spotted, then the player is declared a “rotten banana”, he or she returns all the tiles into the bunch, and is eliminated from the round as the remaining players keep on playing.

Why Bananagrams Works

Remember how I mentioned earlier that what killed classic educational games was the lack of excitement and opportunity to spend energy they were providing? Well, as you can see, in this case the players are literally in a race of wits against each other, and as you probably know, a race of the mind can be just as exhausting as a physical one.

They are going to be scrambling every minute, trying to put together any words they know, probably learning some new ones in the process. Also, the more players there are, the faster a game ends (with 2 players it can take about 25-30 minutes, but with 4 players it takes about 10-12 min.).

All in all, I see this game as being fun, competitive, intense and educational, which is pretty much what any parent in their right mind would want for their kids, regardless if you just intend on using it to pass the time or actually help your child develop.

I should also mention that I’ve looked into the reviews of those who have actually tried this product, and it seems that there is a general consensus in regards to the game being challenging, fun and educational for kids, not to mention that it presents a great opportunity for the parent to bond with their child.

If this looks like the kind of game your child will enjoy and benefit from, then I suggest that you head on over to the link below the post , read for yourself what those who have tried it have to say, and perhaps even place an order yourself.

The Benefits of Educational Games

Education has been subject to many changes and improvements over the past century, and it is only somewhat recently that high profile scientific studies were conducted in order to find out how a human being learns best.

After countless studies, researches and experiments, it was finally found that humans, and children especially, learn much better when the knowledge is passed on to them in the form of a game, or at least if it is entertaining.

As the news propagated around the world many people tried to make up their own educational games, but in the end only a select few, trustworthy companies remained, one of which is MindWare. To this very day, MindWare specializes in making educational toys for children of all ages; their aim is to blend fun with education to help children develop and understand a number of basic skills and concepts.

An Overview of Q-Bitz

Among the games released by MindWare is Q-Bitz, a basic puzzle game for children of ages 8 and up. The Q-Bitz packages includes 120 challenge cards, four sets of 16 cubes, and four wooden trays. Each of the challenge cards contains a drawing that can be replicated using the 16 cubes, each side of which is painted with a certain design.

The goal is for the players to draw a card, and then compete as to who can replicate the shape on the challenge card the fastest. When a player wins, he or she collects the card, and then the next one is drawn, until none are left. Naturally, the winner is the player with the most challenge cards in the end.

What Q-Bitz Teaches

So what exactly makes Q-Bitz an educational game? Well, when a child is required to look at a representation of a structure and then figure out a way to replicate it with his or her own materials, a number of things happen. First of all, their visual dexterity is being trained as they need to spot the necessary pieces and put them together fast enough to outcompete the other player.

It also contributes to developing their perceptual skills, and they learn to keep calm, cool and concentrated while working under pressure. While it won’t necessarily teach your child how to calculate fractions or how to read novels, it will help them develop in other, equally-important ways.

Q-Bitz Pros

• The wooden trays and wooden cubes are extremely sturdy and are unlikely to ever break.
• The set is quite small and compact, allowing you to use it practically anywhere you can find a flat surface.
• While the game is fast to learn, it takes a long time to master and has a tremendous replay value.
• A game can last a really long time as there are more than 120 challenge cards to play with.

Q-Bitz Cons

• The paint tends to chip off a little from the cubes.
• The challenge cards are quite thin and need be handled with care.

What the People Say

Out of all the people who tried the product, 31 gave a review on Amazon. Out of all of them, 20 gave 5 stars, and 11 gave 4 stars, with nobody giving less than that.

Generally, who had complaints mentioned that they were very small and mostly had to do with the paint chipping off the cubes. Apart from that though, everyone had nothing but praises for Q-Bitz, describing it as a fun and enthralling game which actually contributes to a child’s development, contrary to the trash seen on television.

The Final Verdict

All in all, if you are looking for a game that will pass the time for you and your children while keeping their brains active without dumbing them down, then Q-Bitz definitely fits the bill. The game is simple, it sucks you in, and it contributes to the development of the child’s visual and motor skills.

We have looked around for some time, compared prices, and came to the conclusion that the best place to purchase the puzzle set is from the MindWare Q-Bitz Amazon product page, where it is being sold at a 35% discount for only $16.16.