"Carol Vorderman's Mathable Junior" by Wooky Entertainment Game Review

Not every child loves Maths but with a game like "Carol Vorderman's Mathable Junior" you can make learning fun!  This game was sent to my family to review from Wooky Entertainment.  It states that the game is suitable for ages 5 and up but to be honest, with all the best will in the world, there's no way you could give this game to a small group of 5 years olds to give yourself an hour of peace and quiet!  At least one adult has to play to help the younger ones with their sums if needed!

Once we had got our heads round the instructions, the game was pretty easy to play - there are only a few simple rules to obey and so once all the children have understood those, it's pretty straightforward.

My son was pleased that he could join in with the game as he's only 5 and often has to go on someone's "team" in order to have chance of winning anything!

The aim of the game is to place your tiles onto the board adjacent to 2 tiles already place to complete a sum - either addition or subtraction.  For example, if there is already a "4" and a "6" on the board (next to each other), you could place either a "10" or a "2" in the adjacent square, with your score being the result of the sum you have just performed.  Sounds a bit complicated, but in practice it's easy to follow.  There are special squares resulting in additional rules but I won't go into that now - when playing it's obvious what to do regarding the additional rules - cross that bridge when you come to it!

The handy number line from 1-20 on the edge of the board is very helpful when working on the sums and deciding where to place the tiles - with older children and adults(!) you could use a bit of skill and strategy if there's a choice of where to put the tiles.  We played at a simple level with my youngest by just placing the tiles where he could recognise where they would go - even if there was a higher scoring spot available!

The reverse of the board had a different game to play - still number based with addition and subtraction the key to the game but with a different scoring system.   Here, you must match your tile to the spaces on the board whilst also completing equations of addition and subtraction.

When playing with my youngest child, we swayed away from the words "equations" and "subtraction" saying instead, "adds and adds" and "take aways"!  With my 8 year old, we used the correct wording and she was fine.  Also, second time round of playing there was much less confusion and no tears!

As a bi-lingual family, this game can be played in any language as the board consists of only numbers and symbols.... whether you're using "one", "un" or "uno" the game works!

The game is endorsed by Carol Vorderman - even though she has gone on to do many other things in her career, Countdown and the number's game is one of her most famous roles.  So hopefully, she will be helping to develop the next generation of mathematicians!

The adult and older child version of the game "Mathable" includes division and multiplication and is available for download and as an app for use with iPad as well as a traditional board game - when I join the iPad generation (hint hint!) this is one app I'll be downloading for sure!

An advantage of games by Wooky Entertainment is that you are able to download a PDF file of the instructions in the event (likely or unlikey!) that you may lose the instructions that come with the game!

***DISCLAIMER***

We were sent this product for free on the understanding I would write an honest review of what I thought about the product. I received no payment and the review is my own honest and unbiased opinion of the product and I retain full editorial control and integrity