Hopefully you and your families are getting into the Back To School groove. I’ve been keeping JustaBXgirl busy so she has stopped reminding me that she’s not in school yet! As if this mama needed a reminder. It’s gotten a bit more quiet around our abode because all of her older cousins have returned to their school routines.
Even still the fun doesn’t stop at justaBXhome. We still play games pretty regularly. We just shift from group games to ones that can be played alone. (Or with mommy’s help). One of the wonderful, magical single player games we’ve had the pleasure to try out is Thinkfun’s Circuit Maze.
This game is an ingenious way to get children excited about science and engineering. Even when they don’t realize it, they are using science and engineering skills. It is geared towards players 8 and up but let me tell you the little ones will be interested too.
I had wanted to save this game to review with my 11 year old niece and 8 year old nephew but JustaBXgirl pleaded with me to open it. I thought once she saw all the pieces and realized there was no spinner or dice she would get distracted. Nope. She was very inquisitive on how things worked. And insisted on playing.
I figured she would only want to play one round. The first time we played she made it through about three puzzles before she was ready to move onto another activity. That might not sound like much but for a three year old having to figure out how to make a circuit work is a lot. I also only offered minimum assistance. I’m big on letting JustaBXgirl figure things out by herself (unless I’m pressed for time). She really felt accomplished by solving the puzzles and getting the circuits to light up.
Since my 6 year old nephew is in a charter school his school started earlier than his after school program so he spent some extra time with us. JustaBXgirl shared with him that he HAD TO play Circuit Maze. I have to admit I didn’t think he would like it. My nephew has a very short attention span and gets easily frustrated. I expected him to want to stop playing after the first puzzle or so. Honestly, I kind of expected him to get annoyed and throw pieces (as it’s happened with other games). I was very pleasantly surprised that he seemed enthralled by it. He sat for close to two hours playing it by himself. JustaBXgirl was over it after about twenty minutes. He completed eleven of the puzzles all successfully.
I was really proud of him. It also made me realize that he can focus when he wants to so it’s up to us adults in his world to find things that interest him. I might be adding this to his Christmas list (if he doesn’t get Christmas cancelled like he did last year).
Here are the game details courtesy of Thinkfun’s website:
Type: Logic Games New Games
Skill: Logic and Problem Solving
Age: 8 and Up
Players: 1 Player
Features:
- 1 Game Grid
- 60 Challenge Cards from Beginner to Expert with Solutions
- Instructions
- 21 Game Tokens (1 Two-Part Power Source, 3 LED Beacons, 2 Straights, 2 Bridges, 2 Double Corners, 2 T-Shapes, 5 Corners, 1 Switch and 3 Blockers)
MSRP: $29.99
