Two educational games that brought my children together

As you've probably noticed over the course of the blog's existence, I don't tend to fill my kids' room drawers with cheap plastic toys that will be used for play maybe 2-3 times. I rarely end up in toy stores, although, I admit, with the first one I often ordered online and had quite a few. But I opt for educational toys that are meant to develop various skills.

Last weeks we had the opportunity to receive two educational toys for testing: one for Adelina (3 years and 8 months) and another for Daniel (8 years and 7 months) from the story-store Carousel (from Chisinau). The toys are from Djeco – an innovative French company based in Paris that focuses on details and appearance.

#BATANIMO – a fun game that teaches dimensions

It is a game dedicated to children from 3 to 6 years old, but we ended up playing with interest even with the whole family. So I would definitely put this game in the 3-99 years category 🙂

The game includes cards that illustrate animals in various sizes, and a number is associated with them, depending on the size.

At least two people will play, each will go with a card (without seeing their cards) and take the one whose animal is stronger (by size or number). Whoever collects the most cards will win. Although I always tend to say that the "friendship" will win and that the main goal is to spend time together playing.

Initially, I thought I would just play with Adelina, but Daniel actually showed interest in playing with his sister too (something that doesn't happen often due to the 5 year age difference). It was a real "battle" between them and I'm glad it didn't come to tears at all. They played a round, a second and they still didn't stop, even though I kept calling them that it was time to brush their teeth and go to bed.

But the best moment is when my husband and I sit on the floor with them to play a few rounds with the kids – a moment of true connection, especially in the hours before bed. We laugh, we get angry, we rejoice, we give in, we fight and we have fun.

The most exciting moment in this game is when both players draw animals of the same size - and this is where the real battle begins, keeping the players in suspense because the stakes are high.

What I liked about this game is that it teaches more skills in young children and for the older ones it is a nice opportunity to connect with the little one. Through this game, the child learns to: compare two different sizes and use words of comparison (smaller – bigger, stronger – weaker or equal), discovers animals, learns to compare numbers (that 4 is greater than 3 , etc), learns to make associations, develops fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.

But most importantly – it's a fun game for any age, because here it's not who's smarter who wins, but who's lucky in cards with powerful animals.

But especially for me, these moments when I see them playing together as equals are so precious!

I always have these cards in my bag when we go to a restaurant and have to wait patiently for our food to arrive or when we have to wait (either at the doctor, at the bank or in other places), so the temptation to ask for the phone for to fight boredom.

CUBISSIMO – a strategy game that requires a lot of patience

I don't know how it is in your case, but in our country it is unacceptable for me to come home with a toy just for the little one - the annoyance from the big one is inevitable. He also asks for toys, although to be honest, I couldn't really find toys that would interest him not just for one day. It's really a dilemma for me.

But I found more options for older kids at Carousel, but I found Cubissimo quite interesting, especially since Daniel loves strategic and logic games.

This game perfectly teaches about three-dimensional objects, sets logic in motion and trains patience and perseverance very well.

After the pictures, the child has to reconstruct the parts from the cube and even a complete cube (this being the advanced level). Being too convinced of his abilities, he took up the most advanced cards, only to understand that it is not so simple. It takes a lot of concentration to interpret the 3D image and reconstruct it in reality. So it was back to the training pictures.

I was also captivated by this game and tried to reconstruct some images myself. It's really a challenge even for an adult's mind 🙂

Adelina didn't hesitate to request a try and even managed to join two pieces according to the image, with a little help from Daniel.

When some friends come to his house, he does not hesitate to put them to the test and tests their cognitive skills. Some give up at first due to frustrations, others are ambitious until something succeeds. And I'm glad that I don't jump at the first to watch TV.