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Play Smart Dice is available on Amazon here.
{I purchased this game and, as always, all opinions are my own!}
While wandering around the expo hall at a homeschool convention, I noticed a booth with one of my favorite games on display: Election Night! The booth was manned by the creator of Election Night along with his teenage daughter. They were both so sweet that I walked away with a free updated game board for Election Night along with my new purchase: Play Smart Dice. I had a hard time choosing from their selection but landed on Play Smart Dice because it offered eleven different math games in one small box. But, I suspect I will order a couple more of their games, Blobby’s Pizza and Full of Bull, from Amazon soon.
In addition to reviewing the
FUN FACTOR
and the EDUCATIONAL VALUE,
I will also include info on the
ORGANIZATIONAL COMPONENT,
SKILLS USED,
CLARITY LEVEL
and an OVERALL SCORE.
Game Review: Play Smart Dice {Math}
NAME: Play Smart Dice
PUBLISHER: Semper Smart Games
TIME COMMITMENT: Minimal {15 minutes}
PLAYERS: 2
AGES: 6+
CATEGORY: Math
SKILLS FOCUSED ON:
- addition/subtraction of harder sums
- odd/even
- multiplication and division
- multiples of 25
- fraction values/reduction/rounding/comparisons
- order of operations
- prime numbers
SKILLS PRACTICED:
- number sense
- probability
GAMES INCLUDE:
- Lucky 11 vs Mean 13
- Odd Todd vs Even Steven
- Add Two, Takeaway Blue
- Football Dice
- Win the Pot
- Double Done 151
- Fraction Action
- Score 24
- Tic Tac Show
- Chip Rescue
- Prime Time
ORGANIZATIONAL COMPONENT: ♥♥♥♥♥ Play Smart Dice comes in a small cardboard box with four unique dice, 20 colored chips, an instructions booklet, and a carrying bag {which also doubles as a gameboard.} It’s amazing that eleven different games are packed into this small and tidy packaging! And the carrying bag makes it perfect for keeping your purse for restaurants, appointments, etc. ORGANIZATIONAL COMPONENT SCORE: 5/5 ♥♥♥♥♥
FUN FACTOR: ♥♥♥♥♥ In our home, we consider any opportunity to work on math skills without using a boring textbook or scientific calculator, a fun experience. And Play Smart Dice was no exception! But the thing that makes Play Smart Dice sooooooooooo fun is the fact that you can quickly and easily switch back and forth among the different games. Not only is each came quick and fun, but changing games is quick and simple! FUN FACTOR SCORE: 5/5 ♥♥♥♥♥
EDUCATIONAL VALUE: ♥♥♥♥♥ Play Smart Dice is packed with math on so many levels! From the addition of difficult sums to the order of operations, there is something here for kids of nearly all levels. The games are all quick and focused. There is no fluff, just math! Oh, and, the box promotes the unique dice as a “patent pending dice system that is vastly more efficient at producing harder to learn number combinations than other dice games.” Now, I have no clue if it’s true or not but the dice are certainly unique and we were faced with a large variety of number combinations during play. These are no ordinary dice marked 1-6, that’s for sure. EDUCATIONAL VALUE SCORE: 5/5 ♥♥♥♥♥
CLARITY LEVEL: ♥♥♥♥♥ The small instructions booklet includes a set of simple directions and rules for each of the eleven games. Plus there is one page of “general rules.” Everything is clear and concise and includes a visual of the needed components and text explaining the setup, gameplay, and winning. The pages are also color-coded to help identify the complexity of the different games. While all of the games are simple to play, you won’t want to lose this little booklet since it contains instructions for eleven separate games. CLARITY LEVEL SCORE: 5/5 ♥♥♥♥♥
OVERALL SCORE: ♥♥♥♥♥ The box reads
UNIQUE DICE + FUN GAMES = MATH FLUENCY
which is a pretty big statement in my opinion. I’m not sure most kids will achieve math fluency by only playing Play Smart Dice. Boring textbooks and scientific calculators will probably be needed at some point {or maybe engaging video lessons that teach the boring textbook,} but certainly supplementing with this game will help obtain math fluency. And, because the eleven different games cover so many areas and levels of math, you get a lot of bang for your buck with Play Smart Dice! OVERALL SCORE: 100% ♥♥♥♥♥
