Cathy Duffy Reviews home > Creative Learning > SimplyFun Games

SimplyFun Games

Publisher: SimplyFun
Review last updated: August 2011
 Instant KeyPublishers InfoPricingProduct Photos
Games Reviewed from Simply Fun
  • Clover Leap
  • Sumology
  • Bank It!
  • Let's Jet
  • Chess on the Loose

SimplyFun produces some beautiful games and puzzles for all ages, many of which might appeal to home educators. They sell through consultants and home parties but they also sell through their website. On the website they offer a “Club Fun Annual Membership”--for a $20 annual membership fee you receive 20% off all games and puzzles. This might be a good “investment” if you consolidate some school and gift shopping and order a number of items. Purchasing only three or four would probably more than cover your membership fee then you reap big savings. (You might also consider hosting a home party to share products with friends and family and earn free and half-price items!)

I reviewed a few selected examples just to give you a sense of the variety. One interesting feature of SimplyFun games is that all are designed to be played within 30 minutes or less. That makes them very practical for homeschool situations where you want to use a game as part of your class time. It also makes game playing more practical within the busy schedules of most families.

Games I’ve seen and reviewed all were constructed much better than typical games. Boards are thick and sturdy. Art work is beautiful. Boxes for the games even have a textured finish and are printed on the bottom of the box; and these boxes won’t fall apart quickly as do so many other game boxes.

Below is just a sampling. Among other SimplyFun products are an alphabet puzzle, preschool ABC’s, 123’s and sequencing puzzles (vital skills for math and reading), card games, family and group-play games, dexterity games, and strategy games that don’t take days to play! There’s even a Sudoku Challenge board game that is reversible offering Zoodoku for the youngest players and traditional Sudoku on the reverse side--a great way to introduce young children to the game.


Clover Leap

Clover Leap

Clover Leap, suggested for ages 5 and up, is a beautifully constructed game that should appeal to children up through about ages 10 or 11. With a sturdy game board and large playing pieces, it is easy for young children to handle.

“Clover” playing pieces are collected as players move their sheep. A sheep dog “herds” them away from certain places, adding one of a number of strategic elements to the game. Clover pieces have color-coded words that designate them as pronoun subjects, verbs, adjectives, or direct-object nouns. Players try to collect groups of all four sentence elements to construct complete (and often silly) sentences. They receive one point for each clover collected and five points for each completed sentence.

Players move around the board by rolling dice with sheep, clovers, the dog, and a sun symbol. Each symbol requires a different type of move, making play complicated enough that five and six-year-olds might need someone older playing with them. The complications, on the other hand, make Clover Leap fun for teens and adults playing along since there’s some thought and strategy involved.

The game is really attractive. The board is a scalloped circle. Clovers are dye-cut and about one-eighth-inch thick. The sheep, dog, dice, and sun playing pieces are constructed from wood and colorfully painted. The dog is used as strategy and the sun moves one notch in the sky when rolled on a die. Play is over when the sun makes a complete rotation from morning to night or when all clovers are “eaten.” The player with the most points wins.


Sumology

Sumology

Sumology is the game that caught my eye at a conference. This is like playing Scrabble with math. Once children have learned the four basic operations, they can play by building equations that connect to other equations. They use numbers 0 through 9, operation signs, and equal signs, but they can create equations with large numbers as well. This is a great way to elicit lots of math fact practice in a format that is much more appealing than work sheets. The strategy involved also makes this fun for anyone older to join in. Rules can be modified so that your first grader uses only addition and subtraction symbols while more advanced players add the multiplication and division. Each person can play at their own level!


Bank It!

Bank It!

So many “bank” games are too old for children in the elementary grades, requiring them to compute percentages or perform other math functions they haven’t yet learned. Bank It! Is perfect for third and fourth graders, and children up through about eighth grade should enjoy playing too. The game functions a little like Monopoly in that players move around the edge of the board with spaces, with various events happening in each space. Players are racing to accumulate enough money to purchase a bike, but before they can do so they must earn money, spend money in four “stores,” donate to charity with time or money, and deposit money in the bank. Money is in the form of plastic coins equal in size and shape to our US coinage. While coins do not resemble actual coins, denominations match, so children learn to count and make change with the money.

The ingenious game board has a folding “shopping mall” that inserts into the center. The board sits inside the box, and children track their bank deposits by sliding a money clip along a “graph” on their edge of the outside of the box lid. Unlike Monopoly, children can finish playing this game in a reasonable amount of time!


Let's Jet

Let’s Jet!

Let’s Jet! Is a world geography game for ages 8 and up. Following the Basic game rules you can set up and play this game fairly quickly. The Advanced game rules add complications and enhancements that you will likely want to add after children have had an initial introduction to the game. The game board comes in two parts, each of which is folded into fourths. They fit together like a puzzle making a large 18” x 36” board. Players have airplanes to move, a scoring chip for each player that is moved along the bottom of the board to track points, and a distance ruler that shows how far they can “hop” in each turn. Travel cards identify cities within countries which players must visit. Identification of cities forces students to think beyond simple country boundaries. A fact sheet is included.

In the Basic game, players use only travel cards trying to hop to a city on each turn if possible. To do so, they need to identify the locations identified by three “public cards” that have potential destinations as well as three cards they hold in their hand. They need to think strategically about routes and distances. Event, Weather, and Bonus cards used in the Advanced version make the game more unpredictable with both positive and negative events as well as opportunities to benefit from another player’s move.


Chess on the Loose

Chess on the Loose

Chess is a great strategy game, super for teaching advanced planning, multi-step thinking, consideration of cause and effect, patience, and other valuable life skills. Chess on the Loose is a great way to introduce the game of chess. Playing pieces and instructions are included for the basic game and three variations. The variations really make the game even more interesting… or maybe frustrating. “Frankencheck” introduces a Frankencheck monster piece onto the board. Frankencheck takes a turn in the normal round of play, but he moves according to instructions on Frankencheck cards while other players play by the regular rules. There’s no telling what he might do, so it adds an element of unpredictablility to the game.

In the “Treasure Chessed” variation, treasure chest tiles are placed in the middle of the board. Players follow normal play except when they land on a treasure tile. They can risk staying in place to “dig” on their next turn with the possibility of winning points for a successful dig. If so, they risk making themselves vulnerable by staying in one spot too long. Players win by gaining the most points from the treasure.

“U.F.O. Spell Check” puts “battery tokens with letters such as “bi, gh, k, ni,” or “o” on the board between the normal chess pieces. As players land on spaces with battery tokens, they collect them and attempt to spell “rook, knight,” or “bishop.” Two each of these three playing pieces are provided as “extras” that players can win as they are able to spell the name of the piece. Those new pieces are then entered into play.

The variations might make the game more appealing to newcomers ages eight and up, and even skilled players will enjoy the variations on this traditional game.

Pricing

List Prices

Clover Leap $34
Sumology $40
Bank It! $34
Let’s Jet $40
Chess on the Loose $28

Instant Key

  • Suitable for: games and puzzles for all ages
    Need for parent/teacher instruction: varies
    Prep time needed: none
    Religious perspective: none

Publisher's Info

  • SimplyFun

  • 11245 SE 6 th Avenue, Suite 110
    Bellevue, WA 98004

    877-557-7767

    www.simplyfun.com