Sunday, January 13, 2008

MomCentral- Cranium Bloom

I'm always interested in finding new games and activities to use with my 5 year old during homeschooling so there was no way I could pass up MomCentral when they asked if we would like to give Cranium Bloom’s Let's Play Count & Cook Game and Let's Go To The Zoo Seek & Learn Puzzle a try. Both were a huge hit with my youngest son and I'm so glad we said "yes".

The Let's Go To The Zoo Seek & Learn Puzzle has large pieces that are easy to put together and a lot to look at once the puzzle is finished. That isn’t the coolest part though. This puzzle also comes with two sets of cards (Beginner and Advanced) and a dry erase marker that you can use for an awesome learning game. You show your child a card and ask them to find that number or kind of thing on the puzzle and circle them.

My son breezed through the Beginner cards and made short work of the Advanced as well because he was having so much fun! He especially loved the fact that he was allowed to draw on a puzzle without getting in trouble for it. This has become one of his new favorite learning games.

The Let's Play Count & Cook Game was equally as fun to play. This game comes with Little Chef shaped game pieces, a die, a “cookbook” with recipes that you have to make (plus there are great cooking tips and facts on each page), and round pieces that have different ingredients on them such as tomatoes, cheese, and chocolate chips. The object of the game is to choose a recipe, roll the die, and everytime you land on one of the needed ingredients you put that round piece on the recipe book. The person who collects the last ingredient is the Top Chef and gets to check out the “hidden secret” for the recipe. This game teaches kids turn taking, matching, counting, pretend play, how to work with others on things, and how to have a lot of fun.

My son absolutely loved the "cute" Little Chef game pieces as well as racing Mommy to try to get the last needed ingredient. He also liked knowing some of the ingredients in his favorite foods which led to some fun discussions about cooking.

Since I do so many reviews, my son has a lot of games to choose from but Let's Go To The Zoo Seek & Learn and Let's Play Count & Cook are definitely among his favorites. I can’t even count how many times we’ve played both games over the last two weeks and considering that he is learning and having fun, well you won’t hear me complaining.

Cranium has done a very good job with their Bloom series of products and I’m glad we had a chance to play with and review both games. Thank you Cranium and MomCentral.

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