Monday, August 8, 2016

"What Do I Feel?" An Educational Card Game for Children, by Michael Laufer

Our four year old is very alert about everything, including feelings. He has also entered the stage that we have come to call, “The Why? Stage” as he wants to know the why to everything in the world. He notices right away when moods change, and when feelings are hurt but he always wants to know more about why those happen. We decided to try the “What Do I Feel?” game, in order to help him find some answers and explanations to some of those questions that puzzle his young mind.

This game card game is for ages four and up, and can be played by two or more players (up to four). The objective of the game is to gather four cards that will explain or go with one particular emotion. The possible emotions are: anger, disappointment, fear, happiness(2), love (2), offended, relaxation, sadness and surprise. It wants the parents (or adults) to engage the children talking about feelings, telling stories about it, and demonstrating feelings. If approached the right way, the game can be a lot of fun. Our son loves to talk so a little encouragement helps him keep going for a long time. It is definitely an educational game that will provide more some guidance into understanding feelings by allowing the players to explore those feelings. The end game is to have four cards explaining a feeling but we let our son play around with all cards, we change the rules as we see fit just so he does not lose his interest. The cards are glossy, perfect size for little hands (5 x 7 inches), and overall child friendly; There are 44 playing cards in total. It comes with an instructions or ideas page that is very useful when setting up the game for the first time. There does not seem to be a right or wrong way to play this card game, so we adjust it as needed. Altogether, we have had some nice conversations with our son while playing this game which in our household no one formally wins. If anything, we love to hear what he can come up by just looking at a graphic as we find his explanations fascinating.

Disclosure: We received this item in exchange for our sincere, impartial testing, and assessment. Our opinion is always based on our family’s experiences with the product. We have no relationship with the seller, and there were no promises regarding the outcome of our test and review.