Game Review: How Tall Am I?

The game "How Tall Am I?" by Jax Games is a great way to teach children both measuring and counting skills. Recommended for ages 3 through 8, the game consists of thirty character parts (HAT, HEAD, ARMS, BODY, and FEET), a special measuring ruler, and one die which has a picture of each part on it. The concept is to collect one of each part to try to build the tallest fun character. A cool twist is that you can choose any character part you want (meaning you can mix Fireman parts with Ballerina parts and so on) in order to achieve your winning character.

To play you mix up all of the character parts and then spread them out in the middle of your playing surface. The player who is the youngest begins the game and rolls the die first. Whatever character part the player rolls (say a BODY or HAT) is the part they get to choose. All other players do the same thing at each turn. If you roll a part that you already have then your turn is over and it moves on to the next player. If you roll "WILD" then you can select any character part you want which can be alot of help if you're missing only a few more parts and trying to get ahead. After each player has collected one head, one hat, one arms, one body, and one feet then it is time to measure your character. The player with the tallest character is then ruled the winner! What if there is a tie? Well then the player who completed their character first is the winner.

It might sound like a long process but the game goes really quickly and will have your kids giggling at some of the characters they make. You also have to watch out for the kiddos because they will catch on quite quickly and learn what parts will make their character the tallest. My youngest son was amazingly quick to figure this out and would grab the neccessary pieces every chance he had. It was alot of fun and laughter for the rest of us as well.

The best part besides playing the game itself? My youngest son now goes around the house announcing to us all, "Two? Two is not very tall. Where is something I can measure to 11?".

How Tall Am I? would make a great gift for the holiday season for the whole family to have fun with. It's a great addition to Family Game Night and gives the younger kids the chance to feel smarter than the grown-ups which once you see their eyes light up with that knowledge is totally worth it!