Fun in Board Games: Cranium Bloom
My son turned five in November. And it's been a grand five years so far--especially since he started playing board and card games. As a kid, I was infatuated with Candyland, Chutes and Ladders, Connect Four, Hungry Hippos... My son seems to have the same inflection. So much so, if he even hears a board game being shuffled in the closet, there's a sudden urge to play the game. Right now.Needless to say, when MomCentral asked for volunteers to review the new Cranium Bloom series of games--I stood line line chanting, "Please pick me, please pick me." When in reality, I really wanted my son to find some new favorite games to play. And that chance he did get.
For starters we were given the Let's go to the Zoo Seek & Find Puzzle and Let's Play Count & Cook game. Both looking good from the packaging. And when my son saw the puzzle, well he was ecstatic--they are one of his favorites.
The Let's go to the Zoo Seek & Find Puzzle is a mix between a traditional puzzle, I Spy, and Blue's Clues all in one. You first put together this gigantic puzzle full of zoo animals and fun shapes. Then the fun begins. Grab a notebook for "clues" and start looking for the pictures in the puzzle. The kids even get a dry-erase marker to actually circle those items that they find. For a five-year-old, this is a perfect blend of a game. He loves all three, and to have his own personal notebook of "clues" and then the ability to draw a circle around the correct answer? Well, it caused enough excitement around these parts to wake the baby. What's even more cool is that there are 2 notebooks that you can use--a beginner and advanced. We flew through both in one sitting, but then my son started making his own clues and finding the answers.
Was that game worth it? Hell yeah. He's even asking to play it every night.
Let's Play Count & Cook game was a close second in his enjoyment. Simple enough, you lay out the playing board, drop all the ingredients on the circles, choose a chef and roll the dice to begin. Once he got the hang of the rules, picking the recipe definitely became the role of choice. He loved the race to finish the recipe, and even asked me to make a few of the recipes to try out himself (and happily they were new things he'd never tried before). Only drawback for this, is when I heard the name of the game, he actually thought we'd be cooking (one of his favorite activities). But the recipes are simple enough, that you actually could use them to cook a meal. Something we'll be trying tonight when the Husband works late.
So, yes, Cranium is making a splash into kid's gaming. And in a fun way. Love that these are educational, fun, and use a bit of every-day fun and make it into a game. My son's the imaginative type. So throwing him into these games only made him want to invent more. I can't complain there. Maybe I'm looking at the future man of board games. And who wouldn't want that job?
Labels: blog tour, children's games, momcentral
