I learned this fall that the company that makes Slinky also makes other items (and all here in the US!).  Fuzzoodles are theirs, as are POOF foam toys (balls, flyers, etc.), and Scientific Explorer products.  And so is IDEAL, a brand that manufacturers a few toys and some great board games, like Our America.

I played this with my kids, and I was quite impressed with the design.  Every element is beneficial.  Each player gets a game board.  The board has spaces for each of the 50 states, and they are in chronological order based on when they joined the union.  So even just moving along the board is reinforcing historical knowledge.

The way you move along the board is by correctly answering trivia questions.  There are six categories: government & history; people, places, & things; cities & states; presidents & politicians; inventors, authors, & stars; and “only in America.”  You roll a colored die to determine which category is read, and a numerical designation beside each question specifies whether a correct answer will move you 1, 2, or 3 spaces.

The answers on the back of the cards offer multiple choices.  This should allow for varying levels of difficulty.  You could begin by reading them all as multiple choice, and stop giving answer options as your children improve.  (Or could account for older and younger players by giving the younger ones choices, but not the older ones.)  I have to confess, though, that some of the questions even stumped mama!  (I am really bad at the presidents & politicians category!)

The game says it’s for ages 8 and up, I am assuming because of the required knowledge in addition to the necessarily reading ability.  But my 5-year-old played with us, and I just warned her that I didn’t expect her to do very well.  (Okay, that sounds really bad.  I told her that it’s not about how smart you are, but about how much you know, and that she probably doesn’t know most of the answers yet.  So we don’t necessarily expect her to do very well, but figured she’d learn some things just by playing.  So she wasn’t surprised and disappointed if she lost.)  Of course, we did almost all of the reading, but she did actually answer a few questions correctly!  (And I do believe she’s learning by hearing the questions and answers.)  She did quite respectively for being much younger than her sister and me, and seemed to enjoy herself.

A few minor caveats:

1) It takes forever to play.  We played for over an hour, and the most advanced player was not even halfway around the board.  Of course, the better you are, the more quickly the game moves, because you are actually moving!
2) The questions are presumably scored based on their difficulty level, but the difficulty varies based on your own knowledge.  As we live in Virginia, even “harder” Virginia-related questions are easier for my children than “easier” questions related to other states.  So just don’t expect the number of points/spaces to be  “fair” as far as difficulty level goes.
3) The game could use another pass by an editor.  We came across a few instances of misspelled answers (like “Earnest Hemmingway”), as well as a question that had apparently been reworded – but not completely – so it didn’t quite make sense.  These were all pretty minor, though.  Just be careful if your children are learning their spelling of famous names from reading these cards that you monitor them a bit.

I am overall very pleased and impressed with this game.  I think it’s a fabulous design with a lot of flexibility, and will provide us with an excellent means for practicing U.S. history and geography without its just being boring drill.  (Maybe we would do well to set up an ongoing game, though, and play for a set amount of time each day or each week, rather than trying to play a whole game at a sitting!)

This would be a great family gift!

$19.99

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Disclosure: We were provided by the manufacturer with a copy of the game to facilitate this review.  As always, all opinions expressed here are entirely my own (and those of my family members).