Customer Reviews

My First Brain Quest Matching

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

 

 

Brain Quest does it again! My older daughter has the decks, and my 2 year old son got this for his birthday. We don't turn the cards face down to play (as the instructions say), but lay them out face up so he can pick out the matching cards to be put back in the box. He loves seeing and naming the different animals. When he doesn't want to play this way, he enjoys dumping the box out just to watch the cards fall. It's one of the few things with a bunch of pieces that I don't mind having around! Gave it a 4 for durability, just because the cards are made of paperboard and can easily be lost or ruined. But this is a great "toy," and I will be looking at the other preschool Brain Quests for him, too.

This is an excellent and fun game for my 2 1/2 year old, my husband, and me to play. It is also a game that I haven't grown tired of (which is important...as I'm sure you'll agree). This game reinforces vocabulary (24 different animals), taking turns, and consentration (you must pay attention to be able to make a match). I would recommend this game for young children. My son wants to play it every day and hasn't grown tired of it in the month that we've owned it (nor have I). We also own the Brain Quest Lotto game, which is fun as well.

Do You Know What a Dromedary IS? Well, I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I didn't know what one was until my son received the "My First Brain Quest: Animal Matching" game for his 2nd birthday.

"My First Brain Quest: Animal Matching" game is recommended for children 2 to 5 years old. I?d say it?s more appropriate for children that are 3 and 4-years old. In my experience, 2-year olds don?t have the patience to sit, and wait to take turns, and 5-year olds would be bored. The concept is excellent? using your memory to match pairs; however, I wonder why this particular animal menagerie was selected. Considering the game is targeted at 2-year olds, wouldn?t it make more sense to focus on common creatures seen in zoos, as opposed to exotics? I?ve never seen a dromedary, and I think it?s expecting a lot from a 2-year old to compare, and contrast one to a camel.

When William received this game he wasn?t developmentally ready to play it as intended, so we talked about the animals. We discussed where they live, and the sounds they make. Some of the pictures confused him; as a result, I separated them to avoid frustration. The images on the cards are full-color illustrations rather than photographs. I?ve noticed that toddlers seem to retain information better when realistic images are used in books and in games. I wouldn?t call the images animated, but they are stylized. These pictures do resemble their real-life counterparts, although some have more of a creative twist than others.

Now that William?s 3-years old we can play the game. He?s learned how to distinguish between the animals, and how to focus so he remembers the placement of the cards. He?s also learning how to be patience, and how to take turns. He sometimes gets excited, and takes a turn out of order, but that?s to be expected. William likes the ?animal game,? as he calls it, and mommy fancies the time together with her son. Mommy also loves the broad smile that spreads across her sons face when he matches a pair. "My First Brain Quest: Animal Matching" game is educational and rewards achievement; consequently, it?s a winner in my book.

Happy Playing,
Mary

I picked up quite a few interesting toys for my son and I to play with together, that will help him learn and this toy was very good. Its cards have some very interesting animals and my song loves flipping through and playing with it. I would suggest this to other parents.

"My First Brain Quest: Animal Matching" is a variation of the classic card matching game in which pairs of animal cards--24 different animals for a total of 48 cards--are shuffled and then displayed face-down. Players take turns overturning two cards at a time looking for matches. When a matched pair is found, the player takes those cards and is rewarded with another turn. The player with the most cards at the end of the game wins. A rather simple game that manages to improve both memory and reading, as every card has the name of the animal written beneath its picture--a cartoon rendering, ostensibly to simplify recognition, but realistic enough to be easily identifiable to adults.

My wife and I bought these "Animal Matching" cards for our two-year-old Julius even though we knew they might be beyond his developmental capacity. We tried to ease him into the game by first showing him the different animals one at a time to increase his familiarity with them. We then showed him pairs of matching cards to signify that all the animals came in pairs. Julius seemed to grasp this idea, so we tried a much-simplified version of the matching game using only two pairs of face-down cards. We allowed Julius to turn over two of the cards, and when they did not match, we turned them back over. Julius picked up the same two cards, probably trying to convince himself of the permanency of the pictures, and we again turned them back over. Eventually he came to understand that each of the face-down cards had a twin and that finding it made us, his parents, and therefore him by extension, very happy. We continued this with different animals and slowly introduced more cards into the game. By the time Julius turned three, he was able to play the game normally, and my wife and I spent many happy hours soundly beating him at every opportunity. I know some developmental child psychologists might complain that by not allowing our son an opportunity to succeed, we were unnecessarily frustrating him, but my wife and I have always believed in fair play, and our son would have to learn that his relative youth, inexperience, and immature nervous system would be no excuse either in the memory game or the game of life.