17 Feb COLORKU
COLORKU
COLORKU
EditorInChief
This game is an excellent logic game and a fantastic addition to a family’s game collection. Though it can be played solo, it has an excellent Family Fun Factor! Build your and your child’s logic skills with this beautifully crafted game derivative from Japanese logic puzzles.
Meets Expectations
Durability
Versatility
Engagement
The Essentials
Derived from the concepts of Sudoku (Japanese logic puzzle), this board game is addictive and great fun for the individual player, partners, and small teams. If your child is not an oral-seeker (bites/chews/sucks on non-edibles), this is a fantastic game to have! It builds executive functioning, logic, pre-math, eye skills, and problem solving.
The original version has 104 puzzles with 5 levels of challenge within the deck, 81 balls in 9 colors, and a beautifully crafted wooden board. It also includes a color conversion chart (so that you can translate a Sudoku puzzle using this board instead), card holder, storage tray, and solution booklet.
The instructions are straight forward — solve each puzzle by placing only one (1) of each color ball in each quadrant, row, and column. Instead of numbers, wooden colored marbles are used. There’s only one correct solution to each puzzle and using multiple strategies gets you the win! As players graduate to higher level puzzles, they will learn a multitude of strategies
Mad Cave Games also has made available “expansion” packs in levels 1, 2, and 3. Level 1 is intended for younger players (but some find them just as challenging as the original) and Levels 2 and 3 are more challenging than the original pack of puzzles. Here are links to the expansion packs:
Fun Factor
Determination to solve the puzzle is a challenge that players get hooked on!
This game has an excellent Family Fun Factor because it lends to team and partner play. The puzzles are challenging and can be enjoyed solo or in a group. Race against friends and family members to solve the puzzle first or how fast you can solve them together. In some cases, it can take several days to complete a puzzle but enhances enthusiasm to continue and succeed.
It is an opportunity to build coping skills when dealing with challenging tasks to increase patients’ and students’ ability to have fun while challenged.
Parents, therapists, and kid consultants, give this game high marks for fun, interaction, and repeat playing – this game merits being part of the standard rotation at home!
Set-Up and Clean-Up
Set-up, clean-up, and storage of this game is easy. Provide colored containers to hold the various colored balls (refer to the image and see how I store mine in 4 colored cups at home and at the clinic I use sealable colored containers). At home, I leave this game out for easy access to the board between intervals of completing the game. It is also a well crafted piece that can be decorative. Consider these sealable, colored containers for storage:
To further build fine motor skills, retrieving and placing them back in the storage tray provided is also a viable option.
The IF-THEN’S and the BUT’S
WARNING: CHOKING HAZARD – Small parts. Not for children under 3 years or children who do not discriminate edibles vs non-edible or those who seek to chew, bite, and suck on hard items.
Wooden marble colors are hard to distinguish with low vision or with varying levels of lighting.
Enlarge the puzzle cards to the size of the board and laminate the cards to compensate for decreased visual skills.
Two (2) sample laminators include:
HOW TO AUGMENT THE USE OF THIS PRODUCT
When using toys and games, we can facilitate increased general learning and target specific learning areas; enhance creativity and imagination; further foster problem solving and memory; target specific physical (gross and fine motor) skills, social skills, and communication; and we can foster sensory processing and modulation. Learn how to maximize the use of this product for your child, clients, or patients.
NOTE: Not all games lend to a wide variety of alternate strategies. The level and amount of suggestions will vary from game to game and may be added to from time to time.
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