Learning Expressions

Toy Review: Math Slam™ by Educational Insights

Jam and slam! This week on the blog we review a fun, portable game that helps kids practice their math facts—Math Slam! And better yet, we’re giving one away FREE! (See below for details.) Math Slam was created by Educational Insights, the sponsor of next week’s first-ever Teachers Tournament on Jeopardy!® (watch the show starting Monday, May 2). Keep reading to see how it shakes out in my 3F’s of toy quality—form, function and fun!

Form

According to the packaging, Math Slam is the “slammin’ new way to practice math facts,” and I couldn’t agree more. This is definitely a high quality product. It’s sturdy and well-made, full of color and flashing lights, and the perfect size to sit on a child’s lap. (I actually played with it on my desk, which worked just as well.) As with most electronic games, batteries are not included, so make sure you have three C batteries on hand.

A simple power on/off button is clearly marked, and a volume setting with a headphone jack is on the side. There are lots of great sound effects and background music while you’re playing, so I think parents will be particularly thankful for the headphone jack if Math Slam goes along for a road trip.

Five buttons at the top allow you to select from the different games. It’s all very intuitive and there’s a voice that gives you instruction before game play begins. There is a large, clear LCD screen that displays the questions, and four large paddles that display the possible answers.

Here are some sketches by the Riley Wilkinson, the Creative Director at Educational Insights, showing the development of the concept!

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Function

Math Slam is engaging, entertaining, and infinitely more fun than the flash cards I remember using to develop these skills. The physical action of “slamming” the paddle with the correct answer is reminiscent of toys like Bop-It. It challenges your hand-eye coordination and reaction time in the same way, but you’re practicing math while you’re at it. It’s very satisfying to hear the “Beep!” when you get it right, and appropriately frustrating when you hear the “Bong!” for getting it wrong.

The five possible games in Math Slam are called Slam it Up, Sum Slam, Subtraction Slam, Mystery Number, and Triple Slam. Slam It Up asks you to order the numbers that appear on each of the four paddles from lowest to highest. It was definitely a challenge to glance at all four and immediately begin sorting—reaction time was a factor. Sum Slam and Subtraction Slam are straightforward addition and subtraction equations, but Mystery Number is algebraic. In that game mode, the questions are in this format: 8 + ? = 11. While it’s simple enough that kids will be able to answer, just substitute that question mark for an “X” and you’ve got yourself a little algebra! The final game is Triple Slam, which I found the most challenging. That format was 3 + 7 - 2 = ? and it’s amazing how adding that one extra step can impact your reaction time.

Math Slam is appropriate for the kindergarten level and up. (Typically kids are introduced to multiplication and division in the third grade, so they may have mastered the Math Slam skills by that time, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve outgrown the toy.) There are ten questions in each round, and if you miss one, it comes back later until you get it right. This ensures that you’re getting comprehensive comprehension and mastery of the skills.

When it comes to function, Math Slam hits the bull’s eye. After playing for just a few minutes I felt like I had been challenged and had relearned those tricky equations that involve 6’s and 7’s (the numbers my brain has never really liked to calculate).

Fun

Math Slam gets full points in this category as far as I’m concerned. It’s very entertaining and it won’t get old, thanks to the four levels of increasing difficulty, and the fact that it records your time for each round and challenges you to beat it in the next one. This would be a really great way to take a break from homework and have fun without losing focus. It’s a slammin’ good time!

Thanks for reading, and don’t miss your chance to win the free Math Slam giveaway below!

 

Thanks to Educational Insights, we have a FREE Math Slam to give away this week! Leave a comment on this post with your first name, your email address (so we can contact you if you’re the lucky winner), and the name of your most memorable math teacher. Entries will be accepted now through Wednesday, May 4. A random winner will be selected and announced Thursday, May 5. Thanks for playing along!

Giveaway not available in stores. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO WIN. A $39.99 value.

Coming soon! Design & Drill and Playfoam Reviews!

Blog: Playtime with Puzzles | The Traditional Toy Trend

Learning can, and should, be fun. I’ve said it time after time, and I’ll say it again because that’s our philosophy at Learning Express Toys. We focus on filling our shelves with products that foster learning through play. So this week we’re dedicating the blog to a toy that embodies that idea—PUZZLES.

What do puzzles teach us?

We learn a lot of things from puzzles. For little ones, it’s all about building hand-eye coordination, shape recognition (which is an important step toward reading skills), and reasoning abilities. But that’s just on the surface level.

Without getting too far into the technical details, here’s a basic explanation of why puzzles are good for us: The human mind has two separate hemispheres or “lobes,” called the right and left brain, respectively. Each deals with different functions. The right brain handles emotions and performs tasks holistically (as a whole, without breaking it into parts). The left brain functions in a linear fashion. When you are able to use both sides of the brain, and harness all of that mind power at once, you’re at your best. Putting together a jigsaw puzzle requires all of that cognition simultaneously. Studies have shown that there is continuous activity involving all the cells and parts of the brain during puzzle-play. And what’s the point of that? The more you stimulate and trigger that functionality, the more efficient it becomes. And better yet? Your brain likes it! It releases dopamine, which makes us feel good and regenerates our neurons. Cool, huh?

For kids, this is especially important. The brain develops when cells communicate with each other and make connections. Puzzles trigger those connections. Side Note: You know the saying “she’s got a brain like a sponge”? Preschoolers really do! By the time a child reaches the age of three, they have twice the number of connections within their brains than the average adult. But let’s not leave the adults out in the cold here. Puzzles work for us too. Challenging crossword puzzles, for example, require an important brain function called “fluency,” which we need to keep in shape.

Why are puzzles fun?

Because you accomplish something tangible. Finishing the puzzle is the best part. It’s something kids can point to and say, “Look what I did!” Puzzles can also be a sociable activity. Putting one together as a family is a great way to spend an afternoon, and if you choose the right selection it’s something kids of all ages can participate in. As if that wasn’t enough, there’s that dopamine release I mentioned earlier. Puzzle-play quite simply makes you feel happy.

The Traditional Toy Trend

Puzzles are, for all intents and purposes, a fairly basic and traditional toy. There are no bells and whistles. We’re drawn to them for their unique ability to challenge our concentration and exercise that particular part of our brain function, but I think there’s also some nostalgia that contributes to the appeal. We want our kids to play with what we played with, before the age of screen technology. We want to give them quality toys that help shape who they’ll become. We want them to learn the simple pleasure of sitting down and putting together the pieces.

Happy puzzling!

 

Coming soon! Blogs about Puzzles and Math Slam!

 

 

Toy Review: NINJAGO from LEGO!

On this week’s blog we’ll take you behind-the-scenes of LEGO, one of the top toy vendors in the world, and explore how the brand new Ninjago product line shakes out according to my 3Fs of toy quality! Enjoy!

A Brief History

A while back, the concept development team over at LEGO began to notice how much ninja-inspired media content was popping up in the market. They hopped on a plane and took an inspirational trip to Tokyo, Japan to study ninja culture, talk with LEGO fans and story experts, and peruse museums. They came back with some great ideas, which were eventually turned into a new ninja-inspired play theme that we now know as Ninjago.

The name “Ninjago” has its own little story as well. The folks at LEGO knew they wanted something that was ownable, actionable, and didn’t need to be translated. They had an American storywriter on the team who came up with it. He had created the original story outline about five ninjas, and “go” in Japanese means five. So the “Ninja 5,” or “Ninjago,” was born.

Form

Ninjago is based on the story of two brothers—Sensei Wu and Lord Garmaddon—sons of the great “Spin-jitzu” master who created the tradition a very long time ago. Spinjitzu is an art form where ninjas move so fast their actions turn into a tornado. Cool, huh? To protect the realm of Ninjago from his evil brother (who has created a skeleton army), Sensei Wu recruits four new ninjas and trains them in Spinjitzu.

Each of the four Ninjas has an element and a particular strength: Zane is the Ice Ninja, and his skill is stealth; Cole is the Ninja of Earth, known for his defense skills; Jay is the Ninja of Lightning and he’s good with speed; and Kai is the Ninja of Fire who has the strongest attack. Also worthy of note on the “good guy” team (known as “The Heroes”) is Nya, the sister of Kai. She’s not a ninja, but she brings the strength of intuition to the group and is battle-ready with her double daggers. And then of course, there is the great master, Sensei Wu, who is balanced in all the elements and chooses Wisdom as his primary weapon.

Can you see how easy it is to get completely caught up in this? I know I did. Historical Japanese culture is fascinating, and this is a great gateway into that world. To read more about the characters, including the “bad guy” Skeleton Army, visit www.ninjago.com.

Function

LEGO has a reputation as the best construction toy on the market, and there’s a reason. Their line is a well honed collection of products with incredibly high standards of quality and innovation. When it comes to the function of the Ninjago line, everything does exactly what it’s supposed to.

It’s been a while since I’ve put together any LEGO models, and I was happy to discover that the small pieces are now divided into numbered bags, which coincide with the order of the instructions. I found this very helpful. The instructions are all pictures (no text), but it’s pretty straightforward, especially for kids who are already familiar with building these types of kits.

The game play component also works well. The use of the battle cards is a familiar concept (seen in things like Pokémon and YuGiOh) but the physical action of the spinning battle adds a lot more excitement and moment-to-moment anticipation, and requires some dexterity.

All in all for Ninjago, the strength of the execution matches the strength of the concept.

 

 Fun

The genius behind Ninjago is that it incorporates three different play patterns— imagination, construction, and competition—into one concept. That means three times the fun. It also means that it opens up the playing field to kids who have never really gotten into LEGO before, but who are attracted to some component of the theme. At Learning Express we are always on the lookout for toys that help kids build their skills through play, and this is a great example of something that will appeal to a broad range and then cross-pollinate. So, for example, a kid who is good at games will be working on construction skills as part of the battle set up. And someone who already likes construction might begin conceptualizing the lives of the characters and exploring different aspects of historical Japanese culture. Here’s how I break it down:

 

IMAGINATION

The storyline behind Ninjago is compelling. The characters are well developed and it taps into the classic good vs. evil battle, which is both classic and irresistible. That being said, there’s a lot of room for imaginative play. I think of it like a creative writing prompt. Someone hands you the foundation of an idea and you have the freedom to just run with it.

 

CONSTRUCTION

Beyond the spinners, there is a whole collection of Ninjago models that are great for individual play or setting the scene for a battle. Each of the models has a suggested storyline, but it’s very open-ended, which ties in nicely with the imagination component. For example, the Skull Motorbike model comes with this description: 

Chopov is escaping with the Nunchucks of Lightning and Sensei Wu has sent Jay to stop him. Can he use his new-found skills to avoid the bike’s Ninja swat defense and retrieve the Nunchucks?

Or the Garmadon’s Dark Fortress reads:

Samukai has taken three of the golden weapons back to Garmadon's underworld fortress, and it's up to Kai and Nya to get them back. But before they battle their evil Skeleton enemies, they need to get past the castle's defenses, including flick-firing missiles and a huge spider. Let the battle between good and evil commence!

LEGO is the go-to toy for kids who like construction, and Ninjago is no different. Putting together these models is entertaining, challenging, and satisfying.

 

COMPETITION

Now it’s time to add the character figures and their spinners into the mix. (Don’t miss the video above to see what they look like in action.) The game is simple, but there’s a lot of fun to be had. Here are the basic instructions for play:

1. Choose a Ninjago character, three weapons, and four battle cards.
2. Put a weapon in your character’s hand, and place your character into your spinner.
3. Players say, “Ninja GO!” then spin their characters towards each other.
4. When a character falls, the character still standing wins. The winner takes one weapon held by the losing character.
5. Play cards at any time during the battle. Each card can only be played once. After you finish playing, return any weapons you won to the players they belong to.

Sensei Wu can count on me, that’s for sure. Head down to your local Learning Express for Ninjago and other LEGO products.

Ninja-GO!