Insight Editions and Weldon Owen have released two amazing books, Train Your Brain: Math Games and Train Your Brain: Logic Games, both which Exercise Your Mind with Challenging Puzzles. These boredom busters will hone the skills of the little minds by breaking down complex problems so anyone can learn them, all while being entertained and inspired along the way. With puzzles, matching games, sudoku, mazes, and mores, these books are fun for all
Let me be honest…I love math and puzzles games. I find it absolutely fun to solve equations, graph, solve for angles, and anything else that uses numbers. So when I received the request to review these books, I jumped at the chance!
Note this review is 100% my own opinion.
Train Your Brain! Math Games
Time for fun with Math Games! Although that sounds like a contradiction, this book certainly has it all with vibrant colors, cute images, and wonderful stories to solve. All of the puzzles have been made in a way that helps the young Einstein’s learn and solve each problem within the pages. From counting squares to adding astronauts, Math Games boasts over 55 different puzzles to stretch the mind and train the brain.
While everything is adorable and trend friendly, I am told, “This book looks like homework.” I suppose, for second and thirds graders, Math Games looks less like a puzzle book and more like a forced activity to learn math. Little do they know, most puzzles require some sort of math, we just don’t call it math. In fact, if Math was taken out of the title, this book would feel less like homework and more like boredom busting fun.
One such boredom busting game that fits with the trends among the second and third graders is called Space Shuffle. This absolutely adorable game features spaceships, space stations, and planets.. The spaceship starts with a certain number of astronauts, picks up more at the space station and lands on a planet. The object of the game is to draw a line between the three items that show the correct addition of astronaut in the spaceship.
Along with spaceships, there are games featuring bugs, animals, submarines, dinosaurs, food, and so much more. Puzzle solvers can count the bugs, solve the pattern on a snake, earn points finding fish, solve how much a herd of dinosaurs will eat in a day, and even learn to calculate the cost of bakery goods.
A word of warning: Some of the problems are a bit hard to understand, even as an adult. For example, Watermelon Mix-up states that some watermelons have a different amount of seeds. It then requests that the puzzle solver circle all the odd ones. In Math, the word odd usually refers to odd numbers such as 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, etc. While it might be easy to assume the puzzle means circle the watermelons with a different number of seeds than the average watermelon, it is a bit ambiguous. We actually wanted to circle all the watermelons with an odd amount of seeds. Thanks to the answer key, we were able to figure out what needed to be circled.
I also found that Math Games has a few discrepancies. For example, the math problem Domino Fractions has an auto-filled solution that states the wrong fraction. The domino features a triangle that has been divided into 5 pieces, one large piece and 4 small pieces. The four small pieces are shaded. The book then states that the fraction is 4/5, which is wrong since the pieces are not of equal size.. In order to fix the discrepancy and write the correct fraction, the non-shaded large piece needs to be divvied into two smaller pieces to make the triangle have 6 equal pieces. The fraction then changes from 4/5 to 4/6.
Even with the few ambiguities and discrepancies, I think this book is a great boredom buster. It’s perfect for road trips, rainy days, or for the young math lovers who just want to solve mathematical problems for fun. It has wonderful vibrant colors, fun images, and great popular themes kids will love. I give the book a solid 4 Stars. I would have given it 5, but the few discrepancy make a couple of the problems hard to follow and solve.
f you wish to purchase Train Your Brain! Math Games, click the link below and fly over to Amazon.com. This is an affiliate link.
Train Your Brain! Logic Games
The Logic Games contained within this book are similar to the memes often found on different social media platforms, especially Facebook. There ae fun puzzles such as, what cup will be filled first with water, move the match sticks to make the equation correct, select the missing puzzle pieces, continue the pattern, and more
One of my favorite puzzles were the shape sudokus .Basically, instead of numbers, you fill each square with a shape. There must be a different shape going across and down in a line. This is the perfect way to introduce kids to the joys of Sudoku!
Like the Math Games book, there is a discrepancy here and there. The one that stood out the most was the game Pizza Puzzle. The object of the puzzle is to logically determine which pizza was the most popular by what is left over. There are four pepperoni pizza slices, four margherita pizza slices, three vegetarian pizza slices, two three-cheese pizza slices, and one weird pepperoni, mushroom, and jalapeno pizza slice left over. The one with the fewest pieces left is supposed to be the most popular. Logically the pepperoni, mushroom, and jalapeno pizza is the most popular, however, the answer key states that the three-cheese pizza is the most popular. One can only assume that the pepperoni, mushroom, and jalapeno pizza slice is not supposed to be there or the answer key is wrong. Either way, it is a discrepancy that can cause a problem or two when someone’ is trying to explain the answer to the young mind completing the logic puzzle.
The most interesting puzzle that we spent way too much time discussing is To Tell The Truth. Martha meets a fairy and a unicorn in the forest. The fairy lies on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. She tells the truth all other days. The unicorn lies on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and tells the truth all the other days. What day is it if the fairy states that she told the truth yesterday and the unicorn states that it did as well? We went through each day and found that it could be Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, or Saturday. However, the answer key states it’s Monday. If it was Monday, the fairy would be lying saying she lied yesterday.. So it can’t be Monday. What day is it?…I have no idea. Comment below if you know. I would love to hear your theory.
Other than a few bumps here and there, the book is fun! Using just a bit of brain power and some logic, the puzzles are solvable and less like homework and more like a puzzle book. The colors are vibrant, the characters are cute, and the only machine you need for most of the puzzles is you brain. The back of the book contains an answer key, which is extremely helpful, and it is correct most of the time. Many of the puzzles create fun discussions on how and why an answer was chosen. With more than 55 puzzles, Logic Games will keep the little minds busy for hours. I was going to give this book 4 stars, but even with the discrepancies, my family enjoyed Logic Games. It allowed us to debate a few of our answers and we somehow ended up with the goal of proving the answer key wrong. I give Logic Games 5 stars!
If you wish to purchase Train Your Brain! Logic Games, click the link below and fly over to Amazon.com. This is an affiliate link.
