It’s not often I’ve found a video game that I think has any usefulness whatsoever. In fact, I really don’t much care for that thing they call the Wii. (Yes, I’m an overreactive mother who thinks that it’s a waste of time, money, energy, and brainwaves to play videogames, for the most part… but the fact remains that somehow my children have a Wii…)
HOWEVER, I am thrilled to announce that we have FINALLY found a game that actually had us spinning some wheels of creativity around here:
Using ten themes (Fish Tank, Paper City, Puzzles, Magic, Science Fair, Music, Time Tower, Fun & Games, Outer Space, and Amazing Machine) of four riddles each, Ultimate I Spy provided us with 40 fun riddles to solve. Some of the educational aspects included sorting rocks by size (using a caliper) and weight (using an electronic scale), telling time, identifying musical instruments, “playing” music (drums & harp), using spatial reasoning, and just figuring out what some of the riddles meant (due to plays on words, etc.).
Now for the unexpected part of this game: Stephen and David decided to create a Paper City of their own using an “America City” theme using the America-related papertoys from papertoys.com, along with the hospital from Canon’s Craftown. When we found Canon’s Paper Craft Toys, they wanted to do even more, but since I am the designated hold-it-together-until-the-glue-dries person, I told them it’d be a good idea to take a break… (But I found that Canon’s Craftown toys are much bigger and thus are much easier to work with than the papertoys.com toys. Just in case this sparks some interest in you or your own children.)
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| Stephen works on Wrigley Field. |
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| David builds the World Trade Center. |
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| We finally completed Wrigley Field, the WTC, U.S. Capitol Building, Brooklyn Bridge, The White House, Mt. Rushmore, the Mississippi Queen Riverboat, the Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building, and the Statue of Liberty. Whew! My hands hurt now. (And are covered with glue.) |
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| Stephen hangs clouds for America City |
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| I spy…. America City! |
Early in the planning stages, David decided we needed to create a riddle, so here is our attempt at an I Spy Riddle:
That would just about wrap it up, but now the boys are wanting to create an “Amazing Machine.” Evidently, the marble run is not going to be enough now. There’s no telling what contraptions I’ll find around our home… (I can’t wait to see what they come up with!)
If you want to find out more about the Ultimate I Spy game, this video review sums it up well.