Saturday, September 9, 2017

TOP TRUMPS

Kids are sure to have an out of this world time playing the SPACE edition of the Top Trumps card game.  My family has found Top Trumps' themed card decks a great family game night activity because they are both entertaining and educational to play.  In fact, teachers in the United Kingdom have been recommending students play with these card decks which incorporate a variety of themes ranging from animals to super heroes since the 1970's as a fun way to improve children's literacy and numeracy skills.  Over the last ten years, more than 80 million packs of Top Trumps cards have been sold in England making it one of the best-selling games in that country.  Top Trumps games are just becoming available in the United States and if you have children between the ages of 6 and 12 you should absolutely check them out.

There are over 60 decks to choose from with themes that are sure to capture kids' attention and imaginations. Each card in the deck has an eye catching image on it along with facts and figures relating to the theme.  Players need to read through the statistics and trivia on each card in order to win a round of the game.


Any number of people can play Top Trumps.  Here's how the game is played.  A dealer shuffles and deals out all the cards face down one at a time to each player to start off.   Players place their cards in a pile and can flip over and look at just their top card.  The person to the dealer's left picks a category from his top card and shouts it out.  Whoever has the card with the highest value in the selected category wins and takes away from his opponents all the losing cards used in the round.  This process continues around the table until only one person is left holding all the cards to win the game.  Of course everyone wins because as players scan the categories on their cards while competing in the game they are learning stats and trivia at the same time.

The SPACE edition of Top Trumps that my family has played included 2 decks of cards with the themes Wonders and Missions that are stored within a collectors tin shaped like the Earth.  The Wonders deck features stunning pictures of interstellar objects like black holes, moons and planets with categories that focus on topics such as size and distance.  While the Missions deck highlighted various vehicles and tools including a space suit, rockets,  and the Curiosity Mars Rover.  All of the cards featured snippets of trivia about their illustration portrayed on them which are always interesting to read when flipping through a deck.


My kids started off mostly interested in trying to win the game and really had a good time enjoying competing against one another.  As the game went on though, I noticed them taking more and more of an interest in checking out the pictures on the cards and they began asking me questions about the information included within each of the decks.  A few days after we played the SPACE edition of Top Trumps, I overheard my son talking to one of his friends about some of the "space facts" that he'd learned while playing the game.  That conversation cemented Top Trumps earning A GEEK DADDY's nod of approval for being an excellent way to get kids learning while they are also having fun.

Top Trumps' card decks can be purchased for under $10 and collector's tins like the SPACE set A GEEK DADDY was provided to review are less than $20.  Whether looking for an educational tool for an elementary school aged student or an entertaining holiday gift for a kid (decks are the perfect size for stocking stuffers), you can't go wrong picking up Top Trumps card games.  In addition to the SPACE themed decks, other themes include Baby Animals, Dinosaurs, DC Super Hero Girls, Harry Potter, Marvel Comic Book Heroes, and Star Wars.  To see all of the available decks, watch a "how to play" video, and  purchase the card game, please visit www.toptrumps.us


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