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The Scrambled States of America is available on Amazon HERE.
{I purchased this game myself. All opinions are my own!}
My kid’s understanding of STATE GEOGRAPHY is well beyond mine but we still love to play this board game, The Scrambled States of America. Or maybe that is WHY he likes to play it with me, haha! Either way, I also enjoy this game. It’s marketed as “the whimsical, mad-dashing GEOGRAPHY game” and we would agree. It is fun, funny and fairly quick. And, of course, it is educational!
But, it’s not quite as educational in the area of GEOGRAPHY as The Game of the States, because it does not spend nearly as much time and energy focusing on the actual GEOGRAPHIC locations of the states. But, it does still hold a lot of educational value. Read on to see just how and why we recommend playing The Scrambled States of America…
In addition to reviewing the
FUN FACTOR and the
EDUCATIONAL VALUE,
I will also include info on the
ORGANIZATIONAL COMPONENT,
TIME COMMITMENT,
CLARITY LEVEL
and an OVERALL SCORE.
NAME: The Scrambled States of America
PUBLISHER: Gamewright
CATEGORY: History
SUB CATEGORY: Geography
TIME COMMITMENT: Moderate {30+ minutes}
PLAYERS: 2-4
AGES: 8+
HOW TO WIN: Be the player to collect the most state cards!
CLARITY LEVEL: ♥♥♥♥♥ The instructions are very easy to read, and more importantly, they are easy to follow. After we read the directions once and then started playing, we never had to go back to clarify anything. Easy peasy! CLARITY LEVEL SCORE: 5/5 ♥♥♥♥♥
FUN FACTOR: ♥♥♥♥♥ With a tagline that includes “whimsical” and “mad-dashing,” FUN is to be expected! We’ve played this game several times and we are never disappointed in that area. It’s always FUN and never frustrating. FUN FACTOR SCORE: 5/5 ♥♥♥♥♥
EDUCATIONAL VALUE: ♥♥♥♥_ As mentioned above, The Scrambled States of America does not do the best job teaching your kids the GEORGRPAHICAL location of each state. It also does not do a stellar job at teaching your kids about each state {other than nickname, shape and capital}. If you are wanting a game that hits those harder, check out The Game of the States. But, what it does do is expose your kids to each state in a silly, whimsical way. It’s actually great for kids younger than the listed 8-years-old because it relies so much on the picture of the state found on each card. Playing the game gives kids a fun and firm exposure to the state shape, nickname and capital along with a decent introduction to the GEOGRAPHICAL location. EDUCATIONAL VALUE SCORE: 4/5 ♥♥♥♥_
ORGANIZATIONAL COMPONENT: ♥♥♥♥♥ It comes in a small, sturdy box that I love! The plastic insert is also sturdy and has held up even after years of play. The cards are both high quality and very colorful. It comes with four little maps, which could benefit from being laminated, and a small “book.” The book explains the background of the game but is not necessary by any means. And it’s really just a stapled packet so if your kids are rough at all, that’ll probably be the first casualty of the game. The directions are printed on a tri-fold of paper. You may not need to reference them often but you also won’t want to lose them because they don’t appear anywhere else. ORGANIZATIONAL COMPONENT SCORE: 5/5 ♥♥♥♥♥
OVERALL SCORE: ♥♥♥♥♥ Though this is not the top game I suggest for learning state GEOGRAPHY, I do highly recommend this game! It is fun for several ages and levels and does a very good job of giving kids a fun and basic introduction to some state specifics. OVERALL SCORE: 95% ♥♥♥♥♥
If you are ready to play “the whimsical, mad-dashing geography game,” you can grab The Scrambled States of America on Amazon HERE.
If you want something that focuses solely on memorizaing state capitals, this States and Capitals Memorization Practice Pack does just that!
If you want to look more closely at HOW to play The Scrambled States of America, check out the rest of this post….
STEP ONE: Make a pile of red cards and a pile of blue cards. Place them both in the middle of the table so all players have access.
STEP TWO: Give every player a map and five blue cards.
STEP THREE: Each player makes a line of their cards in front of them face-up.
STEP FOUR: Each player spends a wee bit of time reading their state cards and familiarizing themselves with the image, name, capital and nickname.
BONUS TIP: To increase the educational value, they should also find the location of each state on the map.
STEP FIVE: One player flips over the top red card for all to see.
STEP SIX: Each player reads the red card and quickly tries to see if they have a state card that matches what the red card says.
STEP SEVEN: The first player to find a match, slaps their blue state card on top of the red card and shouts the name of their state.
STEP EIGHT: That player collects the red card and sets it aside.
STEP NINE: That player also places their blue state card aside and draws a new state card from the pile in the center.
STEP TEN: Repeat Steps Five through Nine until all of the state cards have been played. The player who plays the most state cards is the winner!
ALSO IMPORTANT TO NOTE: There are two types of red cards. The majority are “find it cards” and include directions like “find a state that has seven letters” or “find a state that is purple”. But there are also “go the distance cards” which require an extra step {see directions} but is where the focus turns to actual GEOGRAPHY.
