The Reading Game-TOS Review

For ages 4 and up

Price $24.95

My son Kylan struggles with reading so I was really excited when The Reading Game arrived on our front porch.  We pulled it out of the box and started playing it right away, it's very easy to understand the rules and set up is simple.  Kylan already knew most of the words but this game is geared more for early readers and/or special needs learners but it was a fun game and he enjoyed it.  He really liked that all the books revolved around the following animals: Skunk, Snake, Bear, Penguin, Unicorn and Zebra.  All of the books come color coded with matching card games.

The Reading Game is a fast action memory card game that includes 6 illustrated books and 6 sets of cards that go with each book.  Here's a description of the game taken from the website,

"Frequent exposure through play hard-wires these words into long-term memory. The card game requires two players, the student and a tutor. When used in classrooms and reading centers, parent volunteers or student “reading buddies” can easily be shown how to play the matching card game. By transforming rote learning into a fast paced game where there is a winner every few seconds, learning to read becomes fun".

After completing the entire game your student should be able to read the 180 words in the game with ease and almost half of these words are 100 of the most common words used in the English language.  You can also go to The Reading Game website and find the pre and post sight word assessment and test sentence worksheets for each of the six card games.  Be sure to click on the "Educators" page where they are free and available for download.

Click here if you would like to see what my fellow crew mates have to say about The Reading Game.

Say Anything Family by North Star Games-TOS Review

Our family was also given a wonderful opportunity to review a second game by North Star games called Say Anything Family.  Say Anything Family is a family friendly game in which you have the opportunity to say what you think.  We were laughing and having fun throughout the whole game, both of my children loved this one too and asked to play it over and over.  Head over and buy this game at Target.com,  and several online retailers including Amazon and find out what hilarious things your family will say.  Say Anything Family Editions retails for $19.99.

The setup on this game was easy because everyone gets a small dry erase board and marker, one person reads the question from the deck of cards starting with "In my opinion..." and everyone writes down what they feel the answer should be.  An example of one card is, "In my opinion, What song most reminds me of being a little kid?"
A couple of answers were

The wheels on the bus go round and round...
Jesus loves me this I know
Itsy bitsy spider

then the person reading the opinion card gets to pick the one he/she likes best.  Everyone votes on what the card reader will pick by placing two tokens on that answer. Finally, the answer is announced.

We had some really hilarious answers and a lot of times they were the same because we all know each other so well!

If you would like to see what some of the other TOS crew mates have to say about Say Anything Family editions please click here.

Northstar games-Wits & Wagers Family-TOS review

Now, that my kids are 10 and 11 years old they are too old to play all of the little kid board games like Chutes and Ladders, Hi Ho Cherry-O, and Candyland so I've been searching for fun family board games.  We've found a few like Apples to Apples but I've still been hunting for something that my "gamer" would like to play and I've found it, both of my kids LOVED Wits and Wagers Family by North Star Games.  It's so much fun!!!

We set up our camper and went and had a game night in the camper, it was just what our family needed.  We were able to unplug our son from his video games and get him involved in an exciting game and of course he won!  This game is easy to set up and easy to understand the directions.  The aim of the game is to answer a family friendly trivia question and then "wager" on your guess or if somebody has a better guess you can bet on their guess, it's up to you.  Lot's of fun and laughs!

The game is available at Target, Borders, Amazon and most specialty toy stores.  It's priced at $19.99 and is well worth the money.

What do you get with Wits & Wagers Family?

 In the box are the rulebook, a score sheet, a pack of question cards, 1 minimum answer board with the number "1" on it, 5 dry erase markers, 5 player answer boards in 5 different colors, 5 small meeples in the same colors, and 5 large meeples in the same colors. (For those who aren't aware a meeple is a little wooden piece that is shaped like a person.) 


To hear what some of my fellow TOS Crew Mates have to say about Wits and Wagers Family click here.

Thanks for reading,