Pressman Toy Company Presents More Low-Tech Fun
If you happened to read the longer story about bringing low-tech fun back to the family road trip, I mentioned playing traditional board games as a way to entertain kids without plugging them in. Pressman Toy Corporation is the third largest game manufacturer in the United States and had been manufacturing fun since 1922. Given the opportunity to review three products on a road trip, I selected ones for slightly younger kids (preschool-elementary). With games and puzzles for toddlers to adults, here’s our $0.02.
In this exciting new vertical version of MASTERMIND designed for kids, players secretly stack their animals into a tower. By asking yes or no questions, they skillfully try to get inside their opponent’s mind. The game can be played at three different levels. The first player to break the code of his or her opponent wins.
I love this game for several reasons. First of all, I could assemble it without coffee and second of all, the animals look ready for a good smack down. The “baaaad” sheep cracks me up every time I look at the box. Shenanigans aside, we’ve been playing the “modified” version of Animal MASTERMIND Towers between the three- and four-year-old. Simply remove one or two of the animals from the tower and you can practice the concept of “on top of” and “below” to your hearts content. Hold on to your crabby patty: this game also comes in SpongeBob Square Pants (!).
Play the classic games of Crazy 8’s, Old Maid, and Go Fish along with Buddy and your favorite players from Dinosaur Train. These classics never grow old and now have been given a new look that every kid will love with the Dinosaur Train characters.
Ever since my grandma taught me Gin Rummy back in kindergarten, I’ve loved to play cards. Solitaire, King in the Corners, Cribbage, War, and even Euchre (it’s a Michigan thing). When you play card games with your kids, you’re interacting with them, reinforcing math skills, and developing their self esteem (teaching that winning and losing are both part of the game). I played Crazy 8′s for four straight hours through South Dakota last summer (you can use a large hard-cover book as a playing surface, but look up before you miss the Badlands). Easy to slip in a backpack or purse, you can even bring a box of cards with you into a restaurant. Number one fans of public television, the Dinosaur Train characters were a big hit.
Another great option for travel are the attaché versions of Pressman classics MASTERMIND. It’s the Codemaker vs. the Codebreaker! Which opponent will solve the code in fewer turns? The Codemaker secretly places any four code pegs in the code area then conceals them with the code shield. MASTERMIND was my favorite game as a kid. I would play with my dad over and over again (eventually he stopped letting me win and the game engaged us both).
We are enjoying the travel version. A little complex for our three-year-old, he is happy to make patterns with the different colors (oh, and the game got a little hip-and-trendier in the past 20 years). Despite the handy zip-up carrying case the travel pegs are tiny little projectiles. We learned our lesson from what is now referred to as the “Lite-Brite Incident of 2008,” and are careful to only take out the pegs as we need them. So far, so good!
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