Countdown..

When I first came across ‘countdown’ game, I was thrilled. Having watched the game show most of my childhood, it was a delightful find!

If you’ve watched the game show, you’ll know that the game has three categories, letters, numbers and conundrum. The board game follows the exact structure, closer it is to the actual game show the better!

So how does this board game work? 

It is a very easy to set up game. Even the pencils are provided, which means no running around trying to find a pencil! For the letters round, the vowels and consonants are placed in two separate piles, face down. One player has the choice of selecting consonant or vowel, and a total of 9 letters are chosen. The 60 second timer is set, and all the players get to work thinking of the longest word they can make. Player with the longest word gets the points. 

Numbers round is very similar, 5 numbers are chosen. The numbers are split into large and small, and again the player choosing selects how many large and how many small they would like (numbers placed face down too). The dice is rolled three times to come up with the target number, 60 seconds set and off everyone goes, calculating and trying to reach target value. 

Conundrum round is simply 60 seconds to try to figure out the word (answer revealed when using the ‘special red paper’). 

Why we love it so much?

We love this game for lots of reasons. Not only is it great because it reminds me of the game show, which I  thoroughly enjoyed, but it includes things like the timer, which have the exact sound as the game show timer (totally nostalgic moment the first time we used it!)
It is easy to set up, instructions are very clear and the game itself is sturdy. With young kids, you need a game to be designed to take a lot of ‘tough love’ and so far this is coping well!
It’s also great to see that it comes with everything from pencils, to papers to write/work out answers.


Part of our homeschool

As this game is so educational, we use it as part of our schooling. Learning doesn’t pause or end, but games like this one make it easier to keep those brains buzzing. It’s useful for both maths and English, and has helped in more ways than I thought. With English, it’s opened up an array of new words, and helped try to recognise words in what seems like a jumble of letters. With maths, it has sharpened little persons skills so much more. He’s understood ideas such as factors more using this game. Also enabling little person to try and use numbers wisely when trying to reach a target and perform the correct operations.

I do believe this is an excellent buy, and am super happy to have found it!