Counting Pinecones: kids educational games

My son is a huge fan of strategic games. We have a pretty extensive board game collection in our house and his first choices are always those that require some sort of strategy to play. Until recently, his favorite game was always a specific game that has you seeking to sink boats hidden in the ocean (you know the one) but it's been well over a month since he asked to play that game. No, my son has a new favorite game that he's asking to play all the time now.

What is this game, you might ask? Well, for the last month, Garrett has been dominating the board as we play Fun Family Chess from Brain Blox. And he's counting the days til his father comes home so that they can play together (Dad is the skilled Chess player in our house and Garrett knows it!!).

When Garrett found out that we had been given the opportunity to review Fun Family Chess, it was like Christmas for him. He's been wanting to learn to play for some time now, but we just haven't found a chess set to purchase for him to being with. Once he learned this set was on it's way, he literally stalked the UPS man until the package game.

Opening the box, I have to admit I was VERY impressed with this chess set. Yes, it's designed with kids in mind yet there's nothing cheap or kiddy about this set.

Upon opening the box, Garrett found a beautiful foldable wooden playing board. This board also serves as the storage case for the piece of the game, with metal hinges and latches to help keep everything securely inside when not in use.

The inside of the board is lined with a black velvet like material and is deep enough to hold all the pieces. Inside you will find two velvet pouches, each containing the 16 chess pieces for either the dark or light player, as well as two reference cards, a six sided wooden die, and game instructions.

Once folded out flat, the board has guides to show what color piece should go where in order (and on what side of the board) to set up the game. Very helpful for someone just starting out and saves a TON of time not having either search google or look thru the written instructions in order to find this information out. With the guide, Garrett and I were able to have our board set up within a minute or two.

Next, our attention went straight to the pieces themselves. These pieces are nicely designed wood pieces, very smooth to the touch with a felt material on the bottom. The dark side is represented by a beautiful dark cherry brown stain while the light side is a glossy white. The pieces are not too heavy but are also not light, making them perfect for smaller hands. (And on a totally secondary note - the board and pieces smell absolutely amazing when you open the case!!)

The next piece is the large chess cube. This cube (as well as the reference cards) are used during the beginning stages of Fun Family Chess, where the player is learning the pieces and moves. This is a six sided die that has a color and visual representation of each of the pieces found on the chess board, with the exception of the King (There is instead a black star that leaves the player the option to move either a piece of their choice or the King). This cube is only used in the learning stages of the game, when the player is first learning how each piece moves on the board. (I will explain this more in a few moments).

The final component of Fun Family Chess is the reference cards. These cards list the game pieces both by name, shape as well as a color (matching what is found on the Chess Cube) so that students can quickly refer to the card in order see how that piece is allowed to move. It also makes note of any special ability that the piece may have, such as the Pawn being able to move 2 spaces on it's first move or that Knight can jump over other pieces.

Also included is a 12 page booklet that details how to play fun family chess as well as the actual game of chess, tips and strategies for standard chess, and even a description of plays such as Castling.

There's two ways to play Fun Family Chess. There's of course the Standard Chess play that you can play with any standard board. However, if your new to playing chess like we are, then you have the second option. This option allows you to set up the board and then roll the Chess Cube. Using the Cube as a guide, you move the piece that is face up on the die. The reference card is there so that you can know that the "Orange pointy piece with the slot on the top" is the Bishop and can move along a diagonal line or that the "Blue piece that has a loaf of bread on it's head" ( how Ashleigh described the King) can move 1 space in any direction.

The player rolls the cube, makes their move and then the next player rolls the cube and makes a move. This allows the player to become use to the pieces and how they move across the board without the pressure of needing skill. As such, the player then builds the knowledge to acquire that skill while building confidence in their ability to understand the game in a more comfortable setting rather than be told to "sink or swim" against someone who understands the game more.

How We Used Fun Family Chess

Unfortunately, his dad left for military training right before the package arrived, so poor Garrett only had his Mom to play with. Mom, who has never played chess EVER had to learn right along side with Garrett. However, that's what makes Fun Family Chess completely different from other chess sets. Mom could sit down with him and within a few minutes, we were both learning the basics of chess.

Garrett setting up his pieces using the guide on the board

Reference sheet ready to go

The smile says it all

Yeah, he beat me!!!!

Okay, so maybe I let him beat me (maybe I didn't - I won't admit either way. ).. Oh man, that's all it took for him to get bit by the bug. Suddenly, all he wanted to do was play fun family chess. And I noticed that even before our first game was over, he was getting a pretty good understanding of how each piece moved. I was still having to reference the cards where he was actually telling me how I could move the piece from memory.

And so now, every night, I'm getting asked to play chess. I come home from Bible study and he grabs the board and asks to play. It's really become our own personal time to spend together.

And he really starts thinking about his moves more and more then when he first started.. I'm still relying on the chess cube for moves, but I honestly think he's probably ready for the actual game though.

Thankfully, his Dad comes home this week. His Dad actually plays chess and is pretty good at it, so I think it will be great for Garrett to spend time with Dad and learn from him. As it is, when I told Charles that we were playing and he said something about castling, I said I had already moved my Rook (because I had rolled it on the cube) and he called me an amateur. So, I guess I might start playing Ashleigh using the "Fun Family Chess" Style while I continue to learn while Dad and Garrett have fun battling it out.

Additional Information

While we haven't accessed these aspects of Fun Family Chess, I do want to mention them. First, the website offers a few different videos for those who learn better from an audio/visual video rather than reading instruction. These videos teach how to set up the board, how to play Fun Family Chess, how each piece moves and how to play standard chess.

Second, the purchase of Fun Family Chess also comes with a 2 month subscription to the website ChessKid.com which says to be a 100% safe, family friendly website that allows kids a place to play chess online with other children. This is not something we have yet taken advantage of as Garrett hasn't begun to play a game of standard chess yet, but once he has begun we will probably look into this for him.

Fun Family Chess can be purchased from Brain Blox website as well as on Amazon (with free shipping for Prime members).

For more information on Brain Blox and Fun Family Chess, be sure to visit their website. You can also find more information on the following social media sites:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mybrainblox
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brainblox
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpUttakNtthj_haX8LwRlwA

Be sure to click the banner below to see what other members of the Crew thought about Fun Family Chess.

For the last few weeks, the kids have been having a blast practicing their math and language arts skill with the Starfall Home Membership from Starfall Education Foundation. An annual membership, the Starfall Home Membership is a single account that can be used by all members of the family for one year that can be accessed on multiple devices such as tablets, phones, and computers.

Starfall Home Membership provides access to interactive content in the form of games, riddles, songs, poetry, and a reading library to help develop skills for Pre-K through 2nd Grade. By using fun animations and sounds as well as engaging gameplay, younger students as well as for older elementary students who might need extra practice to master skills have access to a useful tool that provides hours of educational fun.

Available on both a website or as a downloadable ap for both Android and Apple products (Google Play Store, iTunes and Amazon App Store) , Starfall can be used on different platforms, whether it be a home computer, tablet, Kindle or Smartphone. Both the computer website and mobile app are very easy to navigate allowing for the youngest of students to easily figure out on their own.

Both the website and the mobile versions of Starfall are free from advertisements or outside links to other pages. Even the Starfall Store and the Parent-Teacher Center for Starfall require an adult to answer a question. While a student who is able to read well and a bit more advanced in math might be able to circumvent the process, the average Kindergarten or 1st-grade student most likely will not.

Being that the website doesn't have links to outside websites or questionable advertisements allows for safe viewing of the content. I have no problems allowing Ashleigh and Garrett to play this on their Kindles or to hop on the computer and work on this while I'm making dinner or grading work instead of hovering over their shoulder to make sure that they do not see something that I would prefer they did not.

The Parent-Teacher center offers information to help to learn what State Standards the different offerings on Starfall teach and how they align with your state. There are many resources (some free without membership) to use along with the Starfall website, such as printable worksheets, althought most of these worksheets are for Kindergarten and 1st Grade and were a bit young for my kiddos.

How We Used It

Starfall has been a wonderful addition to our educational toolbox. The kids have struggled a bit with their multiplication tables (something that as an adult, I still struggle with to be honest) and we have used Starfall almost exclusively for practicing memorizing these skills. From 2x all the way to 9x, I can finish each school day with telling the kids to work on Starfall for 15-20 minutes and know they are getting much-needed practice on a skill they need to work on.

Garrett really likes some of the other games, such as the Road Trip game. It focuses on place value which Garrett doesn't necessarily need extra help with but he still enjoys the graphics. It doesn't hurt that he can select a car that somewhat resembles our own car. It also shows some basic geography and photographs of places along the trip. He likes the graphics and the photographs, so this particular game appeals to him.

A few things we did notice is that the website offers much more than the mobile apps offer. We discovered this when Garrett wanted to play the Road Trip game and it was not available on the mobile version. The website offers quite a bit more, which just means that the kids spent a bit more time at the desktop than they did on their Kindles.

When my oldest daughter, who is now 18 and graduated, first heard that the kids were going to be reviewing Starfall, she was hit with a major case of nostalgia. She herself used Starfall when she was in Elementary school and she admits that not much has changed since she used it herself. Now Ashleigh and Garrett will be able to continue with their learning using Starfall as well.