Michael Woznicki Title TIC TAC CHEC Earlier this year my 7 year old wanted me to teach him chess. He learned checkers over the winter and wanted to find something a little more challenging to do. We spent the better part of 2 months trying to teach him chess but were unsuccessful. We started using Tic Tac Chec and slowly he is beginning to understand the concepts and it is much more fun that what we were doing before. Now he grasps the basic of the game without getting frustrated and as a parent this is great. The game has only 4 pieces per side, a pawn, bishop, rook and knight. You have to get then aligned on the same color, all in a row which may sound easy but you’ll find it not quite as easy as it looks. One thing I found is that because there are fewer pieces and a smaller game board, the game play is much quicker. In fact you can play several games in the same amount of time as a regular chess game. Another big plus for the game is how you learn as you play and watching my son I found that he has begun to show his younger brother the game, so now they can play together. Overall this is one game that has made our summer more enjoyable, well done!! RATING: **** of **** (Four stars out of Four)
You got kids, they need something to do. Scrabble seems to be complicated for them, crossword puzzles don’t interest them, and so what’s the answer? Well if there anything like my kids then you might want to check out A-B-C OY. I was amazed at how easy it was to learn the rules of the 8 games and how easy it was for the kids to make up their own games as well. My kids have been playing the game most of summer. The game also travels well as we took it on a road trip several times this summer. Made for the kids from kindergarten to adult you have an excellent set of games to play and learn from. Perfect for this rainy days, or even the ones too hot to go outside, this is a great family interaction game, where parents and children get to play together. Overall my kids like it and I have found a great learning tool that will help them when they return to school in the fall. This is certainly one of the best finds this summer. RATING: **** of **** (Four stars out of Four)
Having 1 child in Kindergarten and another in 2nd Grade, I am always looking for ways or things for them to do that are educational as well as fun. Finding 1-2-3 OY was the hit of the summer vacation. The card games are for several age levels, which is a change form the usual “one size fits all” games. Both kids played together and by themselves and even had friends over to play. One of the best parts of the game is that parents get to be involved and this makes the game a great family gift. Another thing I found was that while there are 10 games you can play, you can also make up your own games as well. The kids (and even some parents) get to work with addition, subtraction, multiplication and division making the perfect first time math game for any child. Overall there is no setup or cleanup making a parents dream game. If you are looking for a way to get the kids to learn, than this might be a great place to start. RATING: **** of **** (Four stars out of Four) © Copyright Michael Woznicki 2003. All rights reserved. Please contact author for permission to use this article (includes reprints in mailing lists, newsletters, and/or any other purpose/format) and give details of its proposed use. Any and all use of this article in any way without permission is prohibited under copyright law. |