Election Night and PlaySmart Dice Game Review

I LOVE gameschooling!  You can use pretty much any game - even super simple ones - as gameschooling.  But sometimes its great to have games that are particularly educational! Semper Smart Games has created one of those SUPER EDUCATIONAL games - Election Night - and I LOVE it!!!


So why do I love this game?  Well, I'll tell ya!  But its gonna take a little while because there are SO MANY REASONS!!!
1.) Its fun!  - Sometimes games that have greater educational value can be, well, kinda dry. Election Night is an exception!  I played it first with my husband and we both really enjoyed it! It wasn't super complicated.  But there were components of both strategy and luck that made it interesting to play.  At the same time, it wasn't super intense.  So we were able to enjoy a football game on TV while we played.  (We enjoy more relaxed games like that in the evenings.)

2.) Its a multi-faceted educational game! - On first glance you may think, "OK.  It's a game about elections.  Good for a US Government lesson."  And while that is true, it's also a great math practice game (I'll explain more about why later) a great US History game, and a great US geography game!        a.) The US Government part is pretty self-evident.  You can use this game to introduce your kids to how US presidential elections work - particularly how the Electoral College works.  The instruction booklet also gives you a few interesting trivia facts about the electoral college!
    b.) You can also use this game to discuss US History!  Discuss the US presidents, how the electoral college and the voting process came about, civil rights issues, contested elections, and all sorts of other aspects!
    c.) The beautiful board is a map of the United States. This makes it a fantastic way to sneak in some US geography! Make your kids search for the states on their own.  Or give them hints like, "Washington is in the North West and borders the Pacific Ocean."  This will help them use cardinal direction (north, south, east, and west) along with location of oceans!  You can also use the game to help them memorize the abbreviations for each state, since that's how they're marked on the game board map!
3.) MATH MATH MATH! - This is a FANTASTIC game for practicing math facts memorization!  And to make it even more amazing, they've made the game board DOUBLE SIDED!  One side for addition practice and one side for multiplication practice!!!  So you're basically getting 2 math games in one!
4.) It plays at 2 levels - As I mentioned in #3, the game board is two sided.  There's an addition side and a multiplication side. But along with that, they've also added 2 strategy card decks that can be used with the multiplication side.  This adds a higher strategy level to the game!  I love that its so versatile!  It can be played by small children who are working on addition practice, older kids who are working on multiplication practice, and also teens and adults who want some strategic play!
5.) PlaySmart Dice! - OH. MY. WORD.  I am blown away by these dice!  So what's the big deal?  Well, Jim Moran, the creator of the game, realized that traditional 6-sided dice weren't the greatest way to help with math fluency.  Why?  Because when you roll 2 dice, 55% of the time you will roll a 1 or 2 on one of the die.  Most children easily learn how to add 1 to a number, followed by learning how to add 2.  These are fairly easy math facts to remember.  So in a game where you want your child to practice more difficult to master math facts - like adding 7 or 8 to a number, you'd be wasting quite a bit of time rolling a 1 or 2.  Enter PlaySmart Dice!  Its a set 4 12-sided dice. 2 of them are "Mean 11 dice" (containing the numbers 3-8 each two times on the dice) and 2 of them are "Mean 13 dice" (containing the numbers 4-9 twice on the dice).  In this way, the dice remove the easier number combinations (1 + a number or 2 + a number) and focus on harder combinations (like 7+8 or 9+6).  This gives your child more chances to practice more difficult addition problems and gain better math fluency! (Election Night also includes a 3rd set of dice specifically for the multiplication game.  This set also leaves out the number 5, since 5 would be an easier multiplication number.)


I was really surprised by this game!  I mean, I knew it would be educational, but I didn't realize how many educational aspects there were to this game!  I also didn't expect my husband and I to enjoy playing it alone!  I definitely think this will get a lot of play time at our house!  (And I've already made plans to play on Election Nights while we watch election results roll in!  Haha!)

I received a copy of this game, free of charge, from Semper Smart Games in exchange for my honest review.