You Will Love This Game!

Our family loves to play games. We have such a good time together! It's a great way to connect, and we're always looking for a new game to try. We were recently given the opportunity to review the game Snake Oil from Out of the Box Games, through the Schoolhouse Review Crew.

This game, intended for ages 10 and up, is simple to play. You need at least three players: one to be the Customer, and the others to come up with products to sell. The Customer chooses a customer card, which tells you to whom you are selling. Each player gets six word cards, and when it's your turn to sell, you combine two word cards into your product, and then market it to the Customer. The Customer chooses the product they feel will best suit them, and the winning salesperson collects the Customer Card. The player with the most customer cards at the end of the game wins. Each game takes 20-30 minutes, depending on how many people are playing; when I played with my two girls, I think our playing times were shorter than that.

We laughed so hard when we played this game! When I chose my word cards, I thought I knew how I would combine them–until one of my girls chose a Customer card. When I had to sell something to specific person, everything I thought I would do went out the window. Since you have no control over the cards you get, this can make for some VERY interesting salesmanship. I was the first Customer, and my card was Executioner. One of my girls tried to sell me Diamond Spit, and the other tried to sell me a Sun Pony. Diamond Spit was very sharp and could take care of an execution for me; the Sun Pony shot laser beams from its eyes. See what I mean? (I chose Diamond Spit, in case you wondered.)

My younger daughter was the second Customer, and she was Santa! I tried to sell her Snow Silence, so no one would hear her coming, and my older daughter tried to sell her Power Soap, for a refreshing burst of energy before heading out for a long night of delivering gifts and climbing up and down chimneys.

Not only is Snake Oil fun, it inspires some creative learning. You have to be able to think quickly and be flexible enough to work with whatever comes up. Also, even if you have the best card combination for a "product" that will suit your "customer," if you can't market it well, you will lose. Communication skills are important, too, because even if you think the product you came up with is a bit ridiculous, you still have to make your "customer" want to buy it.

My girls and I had a blast playing this game, and we agreed that it would have been even more fun with more players. If you're looking for a great game to add to your family collection for Christmas, or to give as a gift, check out Snake Oil (19.99)! If you have younger children, consider Snake Oil - Party Potion for ages 8 and up (14.99). In addition to these great party games, Out of the Box Games has some classroom games that look fantastic (most only need 2 players; one game needs 3 to start) and helpful information for educators.

Connect with Out of the Box Games on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube!

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REVIEW: Starter Learning Chess Kit

I know I learned to play chess when I was young. My dad taught my brother and me, and we played quite a lot, as I recall. However, I have not played in years, and while I have a vague recollection of the way the pieces move on the board, and checkmate, I don't remember much beyond that. I never learned any cool chess moves like the Wronski Feint (okay, that's a Quidditch move, not a chess move, but you get the idea).

I did some quick research, and learned that the game of chess began, in some form, about 1500 years ago - in India! From there, it it spread to Persia, then to Arabia, and then to Europe (at least according to Wikipedia). This year in history we're studying the Middle Ages, and chess is part of that. Knights were expected to know how to play chess, and it was a popular game with nobility. We received the opportunity to review the Starter Chess Learning Kit from Chess House at the perfect time! The kit includes a vinyl mat that rolls up, regulation-sized plastic chess pieces, the Pawn Level DVD (the first level in Elliot's Chess School), and a handy carrying case to keep it all together.

The DVD lessons are taught by Elliott Neff, a National Chess Master. He even plays chess blindfolded.  I have no idea how that works at all, but his lessons are clear and easy to follow. He makes the game sound simple.

There are ten topics on this beginner-level DVD:

• Intro to Chess
• Pawns
• Rooks
• Bishops
• Queen
• King
• Knights
• Castling
• Pawn Shields
• Development

For each segment of the DVD, there is a corresponding practice game in the liner notes. (A friend of mine told me about the liner notes. I don't usually read liner notes. These are VERY HELPFUL, so if you get the DVD, don't skip them!) The lessons present how each piece moves, and the practice games have you practice moving the pieces from the lessons, without using all the pieces on the board. For example, when you learn about pawns, you can then play the pawn game, in which each player uses only their pawns to try to get across the board.

I learned a lot from the lessons and practice games. As I mentioned, I did learn to play chess when I was younger. However, I did not know the pieces are worth points, or that the rows and columns are called "ranks" and "files." I should have known that each space is labeled with a letter and a number, because I've certainly read books and seen movies about people playing chess through the mail, but I never thought about it until we watched the first lesson.

My girls learned a lot, too, and because Mr. Neff's lessons are taught so well, they had no idea how much they were learning. Each lesson segment is short, which is great, because they're not overwhelming. One of the reasons I haven't pursued chess in our family is the idea in my head that it's complicated. These DVD lessons showed me that is not true. It makes a huge difference, learning from someone who has mastered the game and is passionate about teaching people to play, rather than trying to teach ourselves from a book.

The girls and I had a lot of fun learning to play chess with this DVD. We watched one segment, played the corresponding practice game, and waited until the next day to watch the next lesson. Even some of our furry family members joined in the fun! The practice games really are excellent for building knowledge and confidence. We will definitely continue with this series of DVDs.

This starter kit is labelled for all ages, child through adult. I am not sure what the best age is to begin learning chess. I read that children can learn as young as 3, but my 6 year old is not interested yet. He did, however, teach me to play "Battle," which involves him knocking over all my pieces and making rules so I can't knock over any of his. Ha! I could probably teach him how to play the game, but I think I'll wait until he wants to learn, so it's fun for both of us. All that to say, there is no specific age when a child is "ready" to learn chess, and each child is different, so you'll want to determine for yourself if your young one is ready or not.

This Starter Chess Learning Kit is available from Chess House for $39.95, which is a great deal for everything included!

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REVIEW: The Presidential Game

I think one of the most confusing things about the election process in the United States is the Electoral College. I don't think it *has* to be confusing, but most of us don't know that much about it. We think when we vote for the next President, and we watch the little maps change color on TV, that the President has been elected when the popular vote has been decided. Not so, my friends, not so! There is an important little organization called the Electoral College, and THEY get to make the final decision. Granted, they almost always vote according to the popular vote - but almost is a key word. 

I love anything that makes learning fun, so I was thrilled to have the opportunity to review The Presidential Game. It's a board game for ages 11 and up that takes you through the campaign process. There are two teams, naturally, Republicans (red) and Democrats (blue). Each team has their own chips and set of color-coordinated dice. At each turn, you have a choice to fundraise or campaign. You roll the dice to see how many votes you get to use on your turn, and place chips on your chosen state in the hope of taking control of that state. You keep track of your electoral college votes on the included score pad, which is good, because the number of chips you use does NOT indicate the number of electoral votes in your control. The game requires strategic thinking and planning - do you want to try to control key states, or do you want to control as many states as possible? If you want to be in charge in California, you're going to have to use a lot of votes there. Is it worth it? Only you can decide as you run your campaign.

The Politics Cards add a little twist to the game. If you choose Fundraising on your turn, you have to take a Politics Card at the end of your turn. Most of them work in your favor. They might say something like "Your opponent wore loafers to a fundraiser at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage in Oklahoma City. Add 3 votes to Oklahoma." Every now and then, though, you get a card that gives votes to your opponent (your uncle got publicly drunk, say), and sometimes both sides lose some votes (some upstart independent threw their hat in the ring and messed everything up). There are even some blank cards so you can make up your own Politics. I confess to feeling a bit gleeful at the thought of the things we can come up with to write on our cards.

The first time we played, Isaac kindly laid out his blankets on the floor for us. Wasn't that nice of him? Abbie was torn between wanting to play with blue chips and wanting to be Republican. Emma, my oldest, was paired with Isaac, my 6 year old, and he was not even a little bit interested in the game, so he and I had our own little game on the side with his Squinkies. He would give me one every time I did something "bad," according to him, and I would occasionally ping one back at him across the board. We like to keep things interesting. Heh.

WebMap Calculator

One really cool feature of this game is the WebMap Calculator. When you open your game, it includes a code to give you access to an online map. You tap on the states to change their color according to which party is winning there. It looks just like the one you see on TV during election night. It's a lot of fun to use. I had it set up on my iPad while we played. It's neat to watch it fill in.

The game instructions say that a 30-week election cycle should take about an hour, but we had to play shortened versions with Isaac around, because he made it difficult to concentrate. He only wanted to fundraise, which made Emma's campaign efforts interesting. One of these days we'll get to play when he's busy doing something else.

This is a great game! If you love politics, or you don't (I really don't); if you want to teach your kids about our election system or are looking for something to make government studies a little more fun - take a look at this game.

The Presidential Game is available for $35.00. It's a high-quality game board with nice pieces. You won't be disappointed!

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