AB Seas

AB Seas is a game that came in my Discovery Toys starter kit.  I am a big fan of games that can be played together as a family and I am an even bigger fan of games that teach.  This game is all about learning their ABCs as the name of the game so perfectly hints at.

Since the theme is fishing and the seas, I thought bringing it to the cottage at the beach would be a perfect place to try it out.

There is not a television at the cottage, it's a perfect place we are so blessed to be able to go on a regular basis.  A place where we can connect with each other, with no distractions. 

So the first morning we woke up at the cottage we got out this game and played as we were still in our pajamas.

 The game is pretty simple.  There are 4 cards and 4 magnetic fishing poles.  Inside the box there are fish with metal rings.  Each fish has a letter of the alphabet on it in lowercase form. 

 The 4 cards are double sided.  One side has lowercase letters on it and the other side has the same letters in the uppercase form.

 The youngest child gets to go first.  They use their pole to find a fish and read the letter on it's side.  If they have that letter on their card they place it over that letter.  If they pull out a shark, they throw it back and get to go again.  The goal is to be the first to cover all of the letters on your card.

As with all Discovery Toys, this one is designed to grow with them, by having the two sides to each card.  If they are older children they can use the other side with the uppercase letters.  When they draw a fish that has a lowercase letter they have to pair it correctly with the uppercase letter on the card.

 You can see that Lachlan is still quite tired.  Big yawn here.

 I love games that you can play as a family, especially ones you can play with kids that are quite young.  I struggle with turning the TV on more than I would like.  The other day, all I wanted to do was to turn on a cartoon for the kids and have a little down time.  But instead, I realized the baby was asleep and I should take advantage of the time I had to spend some quality time with my precious big boys instead.  So I pulled this game out, we looked at each other eye to eye and enjoyed each others company.  Added bonus, we were also reinforcing their knowledge of letters!

 So far I have ran into one negative, the box that sits up right and hides the fish inside, easily gets bumped out of place.  When it gets bumped the fish inside slide under its edge and its a bit of a pain to have to keep putting back.  I actually took it off altogether when we played with it again later.  This worked out fine because my boys were peaking anyways.  But another friend of mine said I should just get those little Velcro tabs and put one part on the base and one part on the edge of the shield so they stay together during play.  I thought that was a brilliant idea, I just need to get to the store.

Overall this is a great game.  You can easily use the fishing poles in all sorts of other play scenarios.  They get to learn and pretend to fish, which my boys love.

I am a Discovery Toys Education Consultant, so if you make a purchase through my website, I do get a percentage commission.  However, I do hope to give an honest and straight forward review of all the toys.