Geotoys GeoBingo World - Educational Geography Board Game

As a family, we're all about educational games that are also fun to play. This one is a definite hit with my seven-year-old (and my husband and I enjoy playing it as well). As noted by other reviewers, you receive 50 country cards (constructed of a fairly durable and laminated cardstock), wooden bingo chips, and eight bingo boards. You also have the option of playing more than one bingo board at a time.As for the chips: they are made of wood--won't break! The boards are fairly durable, but should do well if returned to the box after playing the game. The country cards are sturdy and can be shuffled with ease without them instantly developing creases, etc. A few nice features of the cards, apart from the vivid colors that illustrate the country (and those surrounding it): they mention the capital as well as the general population of the designated country; the top of each card, which labels the country you're searching for, is highlighted in purple, pink, green, or orange--this color categorization "illustrates" the continent on which the country belongs.The game DOES have some problems, but as we know, we only have 50 country cards, so not every country out there is depicted. One example of an issue that I had with this game: the Americas are designated as one continent, though in English speaking countries (since post World War II), one distinguishes between North and South America. There are similar issues with some of the other countries with respect to their continent associations.SOLUTION (potential): Pull out a map while playing the game and use it to enhance game play and allow you/your child to get a more definite sense of where each of the countries found in this game are located. While the cards themselves are visually descriptive, the nature of the game does not give you a sense of where you really are. Having a map on hand solves this issue. We actually pulled out another one of our games (the map is decent, but not spectacular on this game, since everything is made small-scale so as to fit on the board) called Name That Country Game so that our daughter could get a better sense of where the country was truly located. We are now using a real map, though, as you get better illustrations. Once we started doing this, our daughter immediately began to get a better sense of "where" she was, and is doing better at identifying the countries and their continents.Essentially, this game can be extremely educational or fairly educational. It all depends on how far you're willing to take it. If you just play Bingo, you'll learn a bit, but if you also take the time to glance at a map, take note of the capitals (and then, on the drive or walk to school or during dinner, do spontaneous, pressure-free quizzes about what continent the country is associated with, the name of its capital, what countries are nearby, etc., it is HIGHLY educational). Another fun thing to do is to talk about the shape of the country and to see if your child can come up with an image that locks the shape of the country in his/her mind. I had done this before, but after reading The Little Man in the Map, which deals exclusively with the United States and attempts to create visual imagery of each of the states (fairly well done, though the rhymed verses help considerably) The Little Man In the Map: With Clues To Remember All 50 States, our family has adopted this strategy. We all remember that Italy is a boot, but Chile could be a snake that's shedding its skin, and inside of Canada is a little bunny with large ears.Definitely a great, unobtrusive teaching tool where you and your child learn together while having fun. We're learning a lot too, and it's a pleasure to see geography transformed from something daunting and intimidating to something fun and imaginative--a game she wants to play!

My son is 4 and recently has a fascination with the countries of the world. Since I already purchased a USA bingo game that he loved, I decided to go with a countries of the world version as well. This game did not disappoint. Traditional bingo concept. There are 8 bongo boards that each have a variation of 50 countries. There are 75 bingo chips and a deck of 50 country cards. The first player picks a card from the deck which contains the name of a country. If you have the country on your board you put a chip down on the country, whoever first gets all their countries in a row or the entire bingo card filled wins. Each county card contains a little map of the country, the capital of the country and the population and size of the country. So that was a nice little added bonus. The bingo boards themselves are a little cheap in that they can easily bend and the countries names are very small but overall the graphics are bright and clear. The chips are small and really light which can be an issue for Youngers players keeping them in the right spots on their boards. The only thing I will say is that the age listed is 4 years old and above, which s fine if your 4 year old knows how to read. To be the adult that has to read both the cards and search your own board and the other players' boards would be a bit cumbersome. Overall though great game!!!!

Early elementary kids will enjoy this game. My kids like pronouncing the names of the countries, and they've started to recognize/become more interested in the names of countries mentioned in the news. The game is a basic bingo game. It comes with wood chips, a decent quality deck, and plenty of cards for a family to choose from. The kids lean to recognize countries/continents quickly, so to challenge them, we've begun teaching the capitals. Only complaint: wish that Australia & New Zealand didn't share the same color as European countries. Was confusing for the kids at first. Overall, good purchase.

One of our favorite games. It’s bingo time and while your family is playing you can learn the names of the states and what are their produce. It’s fun game for all ages. I got this game for my son when he was seven and he is almost 11 and we still play this game

I like the concept of the game. The country cards could have more fun facts on them though. They only had the capital, the continents (North & South America are lumped into "America"), population and size of country.It gets boring after a while of reading numbers so I added a step to the game where my 8 year old sister had to include what language they speak, what people are called who live there and fun facts about what the countries are known for. EX. Country: Brazil, Language: Portuguese, Citizens: Brazilians, Known For: Beaches, Carnival, Amazon Rainforest. She loved learning those things more than the population.