Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Math Product Review: Rat-a-tat-cat

I thought I'd put up a review of a product that we've been playing with at our house lately. I got A. a new card game called Rat-a-tat-cat.

The basic rule of the game are:

Each player is dealt 4 cards face down. They peek at two of the cards and leave the other two face down, unless they think they can get away with peeking at those ones while Mom is distracted. Hey! hang on, those aren't the official rules! Put the other two down!

Anyway, the goal of the game is to trade out your high number "rat" cards for lower number "cat" cards. You take cards from the draw pile and discard from your face down cards, always aiming to replace your highest numbered card with lower numbered cards. When you think you have a lower sum than your opponent, you yell "Rat-a-tat-cat" and all players turn over their cards. Each player adds up the sum of their four cards and the person with the lowest score wins that round. Continue playing rounds until Mom has to make supper or younger sibling starts giving the cat a haircut.

It builds skills in determining greater than/less than as well as basic addition. The recommended age on the box is 6 and up. It's an Oppenheim Toy Portfolios "Best Toy Award - Platinum", as well as Mensa Select winner.

A. and I like to play this game. She hates games that aren't really games, in the true, competitive sense of the word. What can I say...she's her mother's daughter and we both like to play where someone actually wins! I've seen many educational activities labeled as "games", but unless there is a competitive component, it doesn't quite seem like a game to me. We both give it a two thumbs up!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Keep up the good work.