Customer Reviews

Roll'n Multiply

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this for me 6-year-old boy, who does not like memorize multiplication equations. He loves playing this game, which helps him remember multiplication results faster than ever. It's a great learning tool that mix playing and learning together.

This was a Christmas gift for my 3rd grade son. We were looking for a fun way to help him memorize the times tables. It seems to work better than many of the mnemonics (songs, etc.) being used at his school. And, the game is fun for his older siblings, also. It stores neatly and seems quite durable. I would recommend this to other parents.

My son is a little too young for this game but that doesn't stop it from being his favorite! He often goes to the shelf and picks it to play. We started it when he had just learned his numbers but was still a little bit shaky. Since he liked to count we started putting the pieces back in their slots by counting to 100. When we passed a number that wasn't used, we just said "missing". Then, just for fun, we started rolling the dice and with that I grabbed a calculator for him to use. Now, my son happily plugs in the numbers and does multiplication which is pretty neat in a bizarre way since he has only a little concept of addition but I figured it couldn't hurt since multiplication is more about memorization at first. And then, he started having imaginary friends take turns and we play "teams" ... if you can imagine.

However, we haven't even played the game as designed yet. It is meant to be a tic tac toe game with four in a row. When we play it, we take turns and fill up the whole board with all of the pieces and then start to stack them. The winner has the most pieces. (Pieces can be stolen when you roll the dice and get the same product). When he gets older, I will probably still play it with him this way but we will probably keep track of the four in a rows with points. I think this will make the game more complicated as he grows. So, I think the basic design of this game is incredible because it can really grow with a child. My son had enjoyed it immensely! Sometimes I have grown a bit weary of entering the numbers into the calculator to show him and playing with it as long as he likes but I think that it must be really engaging to keep his interest for so long!

UPDATE: He loves this game. Now he is enjoying it more as it was intended to be played but with one caveat. Since he enjoys it so much we don't stop until we have filled the board with numbers (but we no longer stack them). This extends the game so that it takes about 20 minutes to play. I imagine that one could keep track of every time a player scores four in a row and give a certain number of points for each one scored. When you play it longer, there can be a lot of interesting turns as one piece switches hands more often. I think that this aspect of the game, that a piece can change hands if another player rolls that number, makes it more interesting than the other "connect" four style of games that I have played. I also think that the learning aspect, from learning numbers to learning multiplication, makes this game more interesting and worthwhile. I have given it to several friends as a gift. Our game has enjoyed a lot of use but still looks brand new, due to the type of materials used and the plastic storage box/game board. An interesting game for all ages but especially good for children learning their numbers or learning multiplication. Highly recommended!