When my eldest was little he was jigsaw mad. I remember he had a particular favourite, a 24 piece “In the Night Garden” one, that he learnt to complete by himself which meant we would sit for ages building and re building this particular puzzle. The tiddler isn’t as keen, he doesn’t have the patience for puzzles but he does enjoy playing games especially if his big brother will help him. So when we were offered one of the jigsaw based rocket maths games to review we eagerly accepted. What made it even better was this it was maths based, and like most mothers I love an educational game.
When the puzzle arrived it wasn’t what I was expecting. In fact at first I was a bit confused as there wasn’t any instructions, just loads of pieces in various space related shapes with numbers on them. After a bit of head scratching we figured out that that was actually the whole point, there is no right or wrong way to play. You simply create a space theme puzzle connecting numbers together that can equal the number on the next piece. Depending on the age and mathematical ability of your child this can be done using simple addition or subtraction, multiplication or division.
For this very reason this product doesn’t get boring. It can be different every time creating lot of different maths games and as you get closer to completing the puzzle it can be used to really stretch their maths skills as they have limited numbers left to build. What I love most is that this game grows with your child and can easily be adapted to continually support their ever improving maths ability.
I first played this with both boys aged 3 and 6. The eldest loved and as maths is his favourite subject and he was eager to show off his ability and race ahead. The tiddler was happy to join in and be chief spaceship placer and number finder for his brother although he was a tad young to do the sums himself. It was certainly a huge hit in our house and has since been played over and over again. With Christmas just round the corner I think this would make a wonderful Christmas gift for primary aged children.
Here are some great tips for helping your child with maths as they get older as well as some resources for when they need to sit their Key Stage 2 SAT’s or even their 11 plus exam.
(This game was sent to us for the purpose of a review, however all opinions our my own).