Children learn in a variety of methods. Mimicking their parents is one school another. But, learning while having fun is the most enjoyable method available. That is where the ThinkFun Games come into play with a variety of games for ages 3 to adult.
Ignite your Mind with ThinkFun Games
What could be more fun on a Saturday afternoon for a child than to have a game session with some new and exciting games. On this particular session, to assist me in this review, I recruited the help of my friend’s children, since my grandchildren live quite a distance from me. For the Spin-a-roo game, Dave and Brooks helped, but four children played. For the games (WaveBreaker, Fidgitz, and Lunar Landing) that were designed for ages 8 and above, I recruited Hannah (not pictured here) and Madison, along with their mother, Kim, who is also not pictured.
Thank you ThinkFun for allowing me to review four games: Fidgitz, Lunar Landing, Spin-a-roo, and WaveBreaker.
For over 30 years, ThinkFun Inc. has been dedicated to creating games that spark curiosity, cultivate confidence, and nurture life-long learners. Its games encourage interest in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math (STEAM), while generating excitement for a world of learning through play. Innovation, creativity, value, and fun are the four elements that comprise the development of every game. Ignite the mind, and change the world for each player.
WaveBreaker, Ages 8 and up, single player, MSRP: $19.99
Originally released in 1997 under the title Stormy Seas, Wave Breaker is part of ThinkFun’s All Star Logic Games collection, where ThinkFun re-releases some of our greatest logic puzzles with updated packaging and artwork. To play, arrange the boats on color-coded wave bars as instructed on a challenge card, then try to reach safe harbor through the crashing waves.
The WaveBreaker game was by far the most popular game for the older children. Although there are separate levels to this game, it didn’t take long for the children to achieve the objective using a beginner’s challenge card. The different levels include beginner, intermediate, advanced and expert. Hannah’s sister, Madison, help her set up the game initially, and like Hannah, Madison also enjoyed playing this game.
The back of each challenge card includes a solution should a player encounter difficulty solving the puzzle, but accessing the solution was not needed in this case.
Hannah reached safe harbor in just a few plays. The feature of this game that I love most, and most parents will, is the fact that the bottom of the game board opens up to store all the individual pieces, as well as the challenge cards.
Fidgitz, Ages 8 and up, single player, MSRP: $9.99
Fidgitz twists and turns in a unique fluid motion that will mesmerize players for hours on end. Your goal is to twist and manipulate the puzzle until one side is all blue and the other side is all white. It’s a challenging brainteaser and a fidget toy all in one!
Like the WaveBreaker, Hannah also played the Fidgitz game. When Hannah first started out, she had difficulty moving the pieces around, but after the first few twists and turns, the joints of the game loosened up. During the time allotted for this game, Hannah was not completely successful, to achieve her goal of getting one side completely white and the other side completely blue. Nevertheless, she did say that she really liked the game and that it would be perfect to take in the car when she travels on her next spring break vacation, or just relaxing at home. Hannah achieved 4 of the 6 color combinations.
Lunar Landing, Ages 8 and up, single player, MSRP: $14.99
This zero-gravity logic game is part of ThinkFun’s All Star Logic Games collection, and is one of the greatest logic puzzles of all time. Use your five-loyal help-bots to find a way back to the ship’s emergency entry port or you’ll be stranded in space forever!
The Lunar Landing game was a bit more challenging for Hannah. Like the WaveBreaker game, there are different levels: beginner’s, intermediate, advanced, and expert. Each bot has different functions and can only be moved in a certain direction in striving to win the game. The saving grace was the solution on the back of each of the challenge cards.
In my opinion, although Hannah is 13, this game was a bit difficult for her. But in all fairness to Hannah, she only played a couple of games in the beginner’s level and had to keep looking back at the instructions to remind her of each bot’s function. Being on a tight schedule, we were not able to play more than a couple games in this gaming session. I believe once she could remember the function of each bot and what directions they were permitted to travel, she would have had more fun and could then play the game in a higher and more challenging level to enhance her learning experience.
Like the WaveBreaker game, this game also has a storage area under the board to keep the game pieces, challenge cards and instructions.
Spin-a-roo, Ages 4 and up, multiple players, MSRP: $19.99
Spin-a-roo is a fast-paced counting and sorting game that offers young learners two ways to play. Players take turns cranking the spinner to dispense tokens. Players rush to collect the most tokens as you sort numbers and colors, or count up and down from one to ten. Spin-a-roo reinforces critical STEM skills in young learners, and is exciting enough for the whole family to play together.
Dave turns the crank to distribute the tokens while Brooks waits.
The Spin-a-roo game has 76 Tokens with 6 Double-Sided Cards. Both Dave and Brooks, who are 4, really loved playing this game. Brooks was the ultimate winner in this game with accumulating the highest stack of tokens on his card. This game helped to enforce the learning abilities of both Dave and Brooks to recognize their numbers and colors, all the while the children were having fun.
Madison and Hannah also enjoyed playing the game with Dave and Brooks.
Over all, all four children enjoyed playing the games that I introduced to them in this gaming session, and they were excited and eager to play each game again.
ThinkFun has a wide variety of games from which to choose, which include Logic and Problem Solving, STEM and Creative Thinking, Visual Perception and Reasoning, and Word and Language Skills. Their games are created for persons from age 3 and upwards to adults, and range from a game to be played by one person to games for 3 or more individuals. The company even has downloadable games for your pleasure. All of the ThinkFun games are available nationwide in neighborhood toy stores and on Amazon.
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Ignite your child’s imagination and allow them to expand their learning capacity with one or more of the games from ThinkFun today.
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