TOS REVIEW: I See Cards {Fractazmic}

Do you your kids have trouble with fractions? Do you your kids find it sometimes difficult to quickly convert 5ths (say, 1/5) to 10ths (say, 2/10) or 4ths (like 1/4) to 16ths (like 4/16)? Do you and your kids like card games?

Well I fit well into all those categories up there! My kids fit into at least two When it comes to card games, I’ll play any kind (uh, well, maybe not Old Maid –again) so when I saw this up for review from I See Cards, I was excited. My kids…well, they don’t share my card playing enthusiasm. But I’m persistent, you see…eventually they will be little card playing maniacs like me! Until then, well, we use these to work on our fractions because that is a category we all fit into.

I’ve always been ‘okay’ at math and my kids have also. But those fractions get us every time. It would be an understatement to say that fractions are not a favorite at our house. We have even been known to use a larger, well-known measurement in place of smaller measures (such as making a full batch of something when we only need half a batch so we don’t have to figure out what the ‘half’ of it is- with cookies that’s great! with beans, it’s not so great , or so they tell me).

But we love this game!

When we received it- haha! the kids didn’t know it was a card math game!- they wanted to rip it open and play right then. [when I say ‘rip’ I mean gently and sweetly open the package of course] And so we did. The first hand took us f.o.r.e.v.e.r! The reason simply is because we are all not so great at fractions.

We had to pull out pads of paper, dry erase boards and make cheat sheets for ourselves. By now we’ve played many many hands and we are much better at fractions. We only played it like rummy- we’re still getting our skills honed.

Basically, if you have 3 players you pass out 5 cards to each player. Then the remaining cards are placed in the middle so that it can be a draw pile and a card is turned face up next to it for the discard pile. Each turn players must draw a card and discard a card. In order to lay down a set from your hand, you have to make ‘1’; any combination of like fractions to make 1 whole. The images on the cards are very helpful with this! The player with the most sets equaling 1 when a player runs out of cards, wins.

The cards are color coded into blue, red and green. They also have clues around the edges of each card to help figure out the conversions. By that I mean they say “Twelfths Suit”, “Sixteenths Suit”, and “Tenths Suit”. The blue cards are eggs (1 dozen); red cards are a ruler (1 inch); green cards are a water bottle (1 liter). These are broken down into fractions. For example the egg cards have 1/12, 1/2, 1/6, 1/4, 5/12, and 1/3- all multiples of 12 (for a dozen). The ruler cards have multiples of 16 (for an inch): 7/16, 1/2, 1/8, 5/16, 3/16, 3/8, 1/4, 1/16. The water cards have multiples of 10: 1/2, 1/10, 2/5, 1/5, 3/10.

For me personally the eggs and water were the easiest because of the images on the cards. The ruler was most difficult but not because the images weren’t good (these have grasshoppers and ants AND a magnifying glass to help with visualizing) rather because there are so many different fractions for that one!

There is also a ‘speed’ game online you can play. Beat the highest score for the month and you can win a free deck Score! I See Cards also offers PyraMath (which was reviewed last year by the Crew), I See Cards for language arts/math and Prime Bomb for learning prime numbers.

What the kids think:

Fox (12 yo): it’s fun! It really helps with fractions.
Lee (15 yo): it’s super fun you definitely work your mind. The pictures help a lot. It’s a nice twist on the game Rummy. I like Rummy; Rummy’s fun.

Bottomline:
We like this game. It has helped quite a bit with fractions. And at $6.95 (plus $.35 for Florida residents; plus shipping and handling) a deck, this is a great idea for an educational game to give as a gift or just because.

I am recommending this game to others!

See what others thought of this game at the TOS Homeschool Crew blog.

***Disclaimer: I received a free Fractazmic deck from I See Cards via the TOS Homeschool Review Crew in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are mine or those in my family. See Disclosure/Policies.

TOS REVIEW: Scruble Cube!

Think Scrabble meets Rubik’s Cube!

And then think awesome. Really awesome.

Designed for ages 8 and up, this can be played solitaire or with up to 4 players. It can be purchased for $24.95 and if you need replacement letters they have those available for $4.95.

From the website: “SCRUBLE Cube™ can be purchased at Barnes & Noble, select Learning Express Stores, FAO Schwarz and other specialty retailers. For more information please visit www.facebook.com/scrublecube”

Immediately we took this out of the box and just wanted to twist it. We weren’t looking to make words. We didn’t read the instructions or the tips that came with it. (Perhaps we should have read the instructions first. There is a strategy to finding words) I love the way it feels and the little noises it makes when you are holding it. The letter circles are movable, so if you make a word but a letter is facing the wrong way, simply spin the letter to the correct alignment.

It comes nicely packaged. It states that you need to be careful and can’t jerk this thing around. After awhile of using it it was much smoother and we figured out that you have to line all the squares up before you try to twist. If any are unaligned, then you will get it ‘stuck’ which could result in damage.

Okay so how do you use it? First you need to recognize what letters are where (not all of them, but ones you need to make a word). They suggest you find two letter combinations that need one more letter to complete the word. Find the missing letter on the cube and… here comes the interesting fun part… “manipulate” the cube so that the letter you need lines up with the other two letters. It seems simple when I looked at the instructions for "Getting Started Guide” but uh, it was a little more difficult to implement.

If you want to challenge others to a game it comes with a score pad and a simple instruction sheet. It also has a sand timer for quick games. But this can go on for as long as you want. Each person makes a word on their turn and count up their points (each letter has a number). The person at the end of 10 rounds with the highest score wins.

Have a look at the education page at Scruble Cube’s website for great ideas on how to use this. There are free downloadable Lesson Plans that incorporate Scruble Cube in Language Arts, Math, and Science.

Scruble Cube won the 2010 Seal of Excellence from Creative Child Magazine and Dr. Toy Best Picks New Products Winner. You can also read an article by FamilyCircle featuring Scruble Cube.

Bottomline:
This is an interesting game. I think it would be a great gift for those who enjoy word games. We haven’t been quite as enamored with it as we were at the start but still pick it up and give a twist. I think I like it more than anyone else in the family.

Check out the other TOS Homeschool Crew reviews.

***Disclaimer: I received a Scruble Cube from RSVProduction via the TOS Homeschool Review Crew in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was given.

TOS REVIEW: Tri-Cross from Games For Competitors

My first review for the 2011/2012 school year from the TOS Homeschool Crew and it is a game

Here is a little bit about the company and game before I get into my review. The game was a concept of Glenn Burns in the 1980s and it sold well when first introduced. The game however didn’t go to the stores after 1987 due to life getting in the way of Glenn’s idea. His three boys, Brian, Greg and Jeff, who were young when he first designed the game, always suggested that he bring the game back. In 2008, Jeff did just that. The company is a family company. The new version, which I have been given to review, has an updated rulebook from the original.

It is called a strategy game somewhat like checkers, chess or dominoes. We like all three of those games in our house. This one is set for ages 7 years and up. It can be played by 2, 3, or 4 individuals or up to 4 teams.

I was sent the home game (the photo below) and an eco-friendly travel edition* (the image above).

You can purchase these online or in some retail stores. See the list of states/locations at the website (see the right side of the page). The home edition is $24.95 and the eco-friendly travel edition is available for $19.95 or they also offer a wood board edition for $34.95

The instructions are fairly straight forward but you can watch tutorials on the website.

Tri-Cross can help develop skills in the following areas (from the website):

• Logical Thinking
• Cause and Effect
• Predicting
• Interpreting Outcomes
• Abstract Thinking
• Memory (In Variations of Play)
• Visualization

It takes some getting used to the strategies of this game! My dd wanted to play as soon as we got it (not even exaggerating) and she beat us the first few times. I thought for sure that I wasn’t going to get it down…but “luck” was on my side at least once And I do mean “luck” because I wasn’t paying as close attention as I should have been and still won!

I will give you a basic idea how to play the game, the goal is to place your pieces in a way that when you are “challenged” you will kick the opponent off the board. (Visit the Tri-Cross website for video tutorials) In the end, you have to either be the only one with pieces on the board OR you have to have one of your pieces in the center of the board for four consecutive turns. Not as simple as it sounds, let me tell you!

The capability of having only two players or up to four players adds challenge to this game. And dd pointed out that the games duration is really unpredictable. Our first game was quite quick because she had read the rules completely through and ds and I had not. She had an advantage over us Each game afterward has ranged from quick to a bit drawn out (not that that is a bad thing). It’s a bit like solitaire- you don’t know how long the game will last when you first start it.      

We took the travel game with us on our recent move across 5 states and it came in quite handy. The case is small enough to fit in to a purse (if you wanted to) and because it is a cloth ‘board’ it is flexible. We played it on the bed but I would suggest a more flat surface.

  

Bottomline:
This is a winner in our house! Definitely worth getting. This would be a great gift for young and old. It isn’t too complicated but you do have to pay attention if you really want to play. Your opponent will win real quick if you don’t!

I would recommend this to any person or family that enjoys board games and especially strategy games.

*The eco-friendly travel edition “eco-specs” can be found here.

Find Games for Competitors (Tri-Cross) on Facebook and Twitter.

See what others thought of this game. Check out the reviews by the TOS Homeschool Crew.

**Disclaimer: I was sent the game above from Games for Competitors (Tri-Cross) in exchange of an honest review as part of the TOS Homeschool Crew. No other compensation was given. All opinions are my own.