When I was given the opportunity to try the games from Upside Down Games, I was quite intrigued – but a little bit torn.  Upside Down Games is a fairly new company producing yoga games for kids.  I love that they’re active, and help teach kids these beneficial poses in a laid-back manner.  However, I wish they had omitted the Om, as I feel that draws in the Eastern mysticism that so often accompanies yoga, which is unnecessary (and off-putting for many of us).

I opted to try out Yoga Spinner, which integrates this symbol less thoroughly than the other games.  Apart from that one issue (which serves more as a decorative element in this game than anything else), we really like it.

About Yoga Spinner

The game is pretty straightforward.  Players take turns spinning the spinner.  On his turn, a player then draws a card of the appropriate color and tries to hold the pose shown for 10 seconds.  If he succeeds, he keeps the card.  White cards are 2-player poses.  “Special” spaces cause a player to lose a card or take one from another player, or are types of “wild card” spaces allowing a card to be chosen from among all the colors.  The goal is to be the first player to collect a card of each color.

There’s a quarter-fold instruction page that spells everything out clearly, but it’s not very complicated.  And once the kids know how to play, no reading is required.  (Some of the cards have written instructions that are helpful, but the poses are doable without reading them.)

One detail I appreciated was the storage.  The cards (and the instruction booklet) store inside the spinner.  This makes it pretty compact, and prevents there being extraneous parts to get lost.  (Seriously, I was super excited about this!  Sometimes it’s the little things.)

Playing the Game

I expected this to be a good, fun way to get the kids moving.  And it was.  What I didn’t expect is that it turned to also be an excellent way to get them cooperating with each other and laughing together.  (Yay for anything that persuades them to get along and enjoy each other!)  As they worked together on the 2-person poses, I overheard lots of giggles.

(I should probably note that grown-ups can play the game, too.  But there don’t have to be adults in the game for the children to manage it.)

If the Om isn’t a deal-breaker for you, I’d say this is definitely worth checking out.  I can see this getting a lot of use in our house, and the benefits are pretty varied.