Balloons
- Andrew Milne
- 2 hours ago
- 2 min read
As a board game enthusiast and long-suffering teacher, educational board games fill me with dread. They are often no more than ‘roll a dice, pick a card, solve the maths problem on the card’-type games that are both not fun and not educational! Answering a question on a card is more of a test than a learning experience, even if it is hidden in the guise of a game. In my opinion, the most educational board games (certainly in terms of maths) are the ones that are primarily fun and the learning occurs through ‘stealth’ rather than being shoved in your face. The fantastic Flip 7 (The Op) and No Thanks (AMIGO) both come to mind here. So Balloons by Ignasi Ferré was intriguing as, although it advertised itself as educational, there appeared to be an emphasis on gameplay and not a times table card in sight.
Balloons is published by TCG Factory and the box advertised that the game should help to develop processing speed and spatial orientation. Excellent news! I was looking forward to playing it with my numbers-obsessed four-year-old. There are three versions of the game with varying degrees of complexity. Slightly weirdly, the third version described in the rule book is actually the simplest. Essentially, turning over a card and then counting the number of balloons on show that match a certain colour. The other two versions have a little more complexity and require a bit more processing and spatial awareness as the box indicated. In one version, you have to identify a card that has exactly the right number of balloon animals of a certain colour. My son particularly enjoyed following the rule of shouting out ‘NO CARD!’ when he realised there was no card on show that matched the objective. The third version of the game involved looking across a number of cards to find which coloured balloon animal totalled a given number. This was a tricky task and you could almost see the cogs whirring in the little person’s brain trying to do this at speed.
Overall, we both enjoyed playing these games and they did succeed in being both educational and fun. A minor gripe, but all versions of the game are heavily reliant on speed. I was more than happy to allow my son to spot that there were three yellow balloon dogs on the third card and enjoyed seeing his mischievous grin when he believed that he’d spotted this quicker than me. But when big sister started lurking and showing an interest, I politely suggested she looked for another way to occupy herself as she would have no doubt beaten her little brother on every turn! That aside, Balloons is an excellent way to entertain a youngster for a while, and if they learn something along the way then all the better.
(Review by Andrew Milne)