Mind Up Game Review

 

Mind Up

Players: 3-6

Play Time: 15-20 min

Ages:  8+

Overview:

In Mind Up, you’re trying to score as many points as possible by selecting cards and adding them to your tableau. However, you don’t get to directly pick the cards you get. A line of numbered cards is set out on the table, equal to the number of players in the game. Each player then secretly selects a card to play, all the cards are simultaneously revealed and placed in numerical order. Then, you get to take the card that lines up with where the card you played lands. If you want the first card, you’d play something low, if you want the last card, you’d play something high, etc. The played cards then create the new baseline and everyone ads their cards to their own grids. The scoring grid is simple, but does vary from round to round, adding some variability. Some cards offer bonus points while others offer penalties.

Thoughts:

We originally tried this game on BGA and played it several times. Partially because it was quick, mostly because it was enjoyable. We ended up buying it to play when we have family over. We recently played with my dad, brother and his girlfriend and it went over well. The rules are straightforward, so it is easy to explain and play quickly. We also have a few non-native English speakers in the family, so this game will be perfect to break out with them. It also works well for a wide variety of ages and gaming experience. There is some luck and a lot of guesswork, but it is all in light hearted fun. Definitely not one for someone who wants something crunchier!

Overall, I liked it a lot and it feels different enough from our other games that I can see playing it more than just for the Day of the Dead! I’m so glad we added it to our collection.

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Pátzcuaro Board Game Review

Pátzcuaro

Players: 2-6

Play Time: 20-45 min

Ages:  10+

I’ve worked hard to expose my kids to books from different viewpoints and different cultures, so when I saw the chance to continue that cultural exposure through a board game, I jumped at it! We recently purchased Pátzcuaro in time for the Mexican celebration of the Day of the Dead.

🕯️Overview:🕯️

Your goal is to decorate an altar in honor of loved ones who have passed away. Players take turns traveling around the shops and collecting items to use in their altars. Shop spaces and the Pátzcuaro tile let you trade cards, draw cards and build to your altar (a pyramid of cards you are constructing). There are set scoring objectives for every game and there are goal cards that can change from game to game. The trick is trying maximize both sets of scoring objectives and completing your altar before someone else does and ends the game.

🍭Thoughts:🍭

First of all, the production quality is fantastic. The artwork is colorful and festive. It drew me in immediately. The Pátzcuaro tile and shop tiles are sturdy and double sided, adding replayability. I also love the little meeples carrying their offerings!

I enjoyed playing quite a bit. It’s a little bit set collection and a little bit tableau building, but there’s enough variety in the action spaces and scoring to keep it engaging. It also felt like a good pace/length, although my husband finished his altar much faster than my son and I did, so I didn’t get to finish mine! My oldest son enjoyed it, but thought it might be a little simple for his tastes (he also came in last by a decent margin, so it can't be THAT simple). While I agree, it was a nice quick game, I did not find it prohibitively light. I don’t think my 6 year old could play it yet, even though he’s had some decent gaming experience.

Overall, I liked it a lot and it feels different enough from our other games that I can see playing it more than just for the Day of the Dead! I’m so glad we added it to our collection.

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Mists over Carcassonne Game Review

Mists Over Carcassonne 

Players: 2-6

Play Time: 20-45 min

Ages:  10+

Overview:

Mists Over Carcassonne is a cooperative version of Carcassonne (see my review here) in which the players are working together to defeat the ghosts. There are 6 progressively harder levels to beat. Scoring actually works the same as the original game, making it easy for us to jump into, but you’re accumulating those points together to reach a target before you run out of tiles or the ghosts overwhelm you. The target score becomes higher as you progress through the levels, and additional elements like cemeteries and castles are added to the regular cities and roads.

Review:

After playing the first level, I told my husband and teenager that I probably won’t play regular Carcassonne with them again (I’ll still play it with my 6 year old). Not only is the cooperative nature nice, I really enjoyed the slight bump in complexity for this version. You have to balance trying to defeat the ghosts with scoring points, because rarely can you do both perfectly. You can plan ahead and work together to try to double your points by connecting two players’ roads and cities, which will probably be crucial in the harder levels. Plus, the meeples and ghosts are pretty cute. Additionally, it is a quick enough play that I can see us playing the harder levels even after we complete them, especially if we do it yearly leading up to Halloween.

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Tot School: Halloween

We recently wrapped up a couple of weeks on Halloween themed activities with Juniper (28 months).

We have a TON of Halloween books, but here are her favorites (the ones I had to read on repeat!)

Love Monster and the Scary Something

There's a Witch in Your Book

Spider Queen's Halloween

Ghost in the House

Bear Feels Scared

The Little Ghost Who Lost Her Boo!

Spooky Wheels on the Bus

AlphaOops: H is for Halloween

She also LOVES the School of Monsters books we have. She's working on being able to read all the words herself.

Halloween sensory bin. I used purple rice with colored pastas.

Shape matching cauldrons. I remember worrying last year because she couldn't do these yet (and her brother could at the same age), but she did them easily this year.

Color matching cauldrons.

Using little pumpkin erasers with beginner tens frames.

Lots of play dough this week.

I had some cute little acrylic ghosts from some Halloween table skater, so we used them to act out "Ten Timid Ghosts." She enjoyed making them "fly off to the forest."

We used some of our acrylic cubes to practice number matching on this worksheet from 3 Dinosaurs.

Halloween 3 Part Cards

 

Deadlines Card Game Review

 

Deadlines

Players: 1-10

Play Time: 15-30 minutes

Ages: 12+

Overview:

Three columns are created, one for year of birth, one for lifespan and one for year of death. On your turn, you pick from one of three piles of cards with (in)famous peoples’ names on them and try to place that person correctly into one of the three columns. Because correctly placed cards stay, the game gets harder as you play. Some cards also give you the chance to guess the cause of death and let you get rid of or give penalty cards. The person with the fewest mistakes at the end of the game, wins.

Review:

In full disclosure, I happened to win this game in a giveaway from FoxMind rather than purchasing it. Now I will say, that had I just seen this game in the store, I probably would not have purchased it. I am a math/science girl. History and dates are NOT my thing, so I expected to fail miserably. I did lose, by a lot. Like a lot. However, gameplay pleasantly surprised me. It did not feel like a history test at all! A lot of more contemporary popular figures are included, (that even my non pop-culture savvy self knew). There was a lot more wiggle room than I expected. It’s such a simple concept, we said it could easily be played with non-gamers or taken to a gathering. This is more likely a warm-up game rather than the main game of the night, but that doesn’t make it bad. We’re glad it found its way to our collection and will likely continue to keep it in our pre-Halloween lineup (even though the game really has nothing to do with Halloween)!

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Ancient Egypt Homeschool Unit

 We just wrapped up about a month spent on Ancient Egypt. We definitely didn't go too deep or intense, because he's still early elementary, but I think he really enjoyed the unit! Here's what we did.

Books:

As always, we read tons of books! Most books I just let him read, but I did have a few notes/graphic organizers for him. Since he is 6 and hates writing, I often wrote his answers.

Top 10 Worst Things About Ancient Egypt You Wouldn't Want to Know!

Pharaohs and Pyramids

You Wouldn't Want to Be a Pyramid Builder!

You Wouldn't Want to Be Cursed by King Tut!

You Wouldn't Want to Be an Egyptian Mummy!

The Mystery of the Golden Crocodile: An Egyptian Maze Adventure

Ms. Frizzle's Adventures: Ancient Egypt

See Inside Ancient Egypt

Ten Little Mummies

Look Inside Mummies and Pyramids

Minibooks from Royal Baloo

Marcy and the Riddle of the Sphinx

Smithsonian History

When on Earth Atlas

Reading Questions

For read aloud, we read Ra the Mighty: Cat Detective. Archer enjoyed it so much he asked me to order the next one in the series.

Activities

We played a few games of Hâpy Families, a card game based on some of the Egyptican gods.

While he doesn't actually play the whole game (probably in a couple of years), he does love to run the dice and camels for Camel Up!

I found this neat hieroglyphs stamp set and he practiced writing with them.

For his solo logic game one week he played Temple Trap

I found a Live Worksheet on hieroglyphs, a search and find and a worksheet about the Nile from education.com. We also watched some YouTube videos, but nothing remarkable.

Penguin Party Game Review

 

Penguin Party

Players: 2-6

Play Time: ~10 depending on number of rounds

Ages: 5+ (officially 8+)

Overview Video:

Review:

Penguin Party has been a HUGE hit in our house! My 6 year old took to it right away, so we’ve played it many times since we’ve gotten it, including taking it to grandparents’ and on an overnight visit to a friend’s house. We can also easily play it with non-native English speakers in the family. I like that gameplay is simple, but still requires some planning ahead. The small box is great, the artwork is adorable and we like the little animal tokens.

My only complaints with the game are that the rules didn't specify how many rounds to play (we play 3) and the cards seem just a little thin, so I hope they stand the test of time.

Game gifted from @playte but all opinions are my own. Check out https://ebay.com/str/playte for your own copy!

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