It is no secret that I love using maths games with my two kids.  I think they make maths more alive and the kids always end up practicing more maths if it is in a game format.  It is one of the reasons why I always try to include games in our maths baskets.  One of our newest games is this one – Even Steven’s Odd.

The game comes with the following – Steven (he is the cute little dice person), 4 coloured dice holders, 24 Dice (each player will need 3 coloured dice and 3 white dice) and 40 Dice challenge cards (the easier challenges are marked with a little red star at the top of the card).

The objective of the game is to be the first person to fill their dice holder with their dice matching the challenge card selected.

The game is great at getting the kids to think about, remember and then copy some number patterns – eg coloured dice must be even and white dice odd or have dice going in a pattern of one coloured one white while also representing the numbers from 1 to 6.

And the harder challenge cards can really get you thinking (we tend to stick to the easier cards when my youngest is joining in).  Some examples of the harder ones are – the total of the coloured dice must be great then the total of the white dice or the coloured dice need to add up to 15 and the white dice need to add up to 7.  You can also make up a few challenges yourself – my daughter really likes to do this.

We wanted this game for our oldest and I am very happy with it for two reasons.  When we play it with her younger brother, we stick to the easier cards and then it is a speed game.  You want to fill your dice holder as quickly as you can, so you need to roll your dice, check to see if any of your dice match the requirements, place those on the dice holder and then roll the dice again and again.  But you need to do this quickly.

My oldest tends to question her maths, so a lot of the time she knows the answer but doubts herself.  In this game she had to just go for it.  She wanted to be the person to grab Steven so she had to speed up, she had to roll those dice, look quickly trust that she took the right ones and move on.

We think it is a fun speed game.  Secondly the harder dice challenge cards which she plays with either myself or her dad, they really do make her think and have been the starting point for a number of interesting questions.

Although we have only had this game for a few weeks it has become a fun game that the four of us can play together as a family.

Learning Resources kindly sent us this game so we could include it in one of our Maths baskets.

You can buy this game directly from the Learning Resources website or from Amazon here- Learning Resources Even Steven’s Odd

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