Spot It! Junior Animals

I got Spot It! Animals Jr. for my son, and it has been a fantastic game for improving his concentration and focus. He loves the challenge of finding matching animals quickly, and I’ve noticed it really sharpens his observation skills. The game is simple to learn but keeps him engaged, and we have so much fun playing together as a family. It’s also great that it’s short enough to hold his attention without feeling too long. The cards are sturdy and well-made, perfect for little hands. Definitely a great game for both fun and learning!

My five year old granddaughter loved this. My husband played four suggested versions of the game, from the instructions with her. It was easy to understand and she learned it very quickly. She was very fast, faster than my husband and beat him in every version. It’s always such a delight for a young child to be able to beat an adult, because, as we know, for so many games they have to loose a lot before they get good enough to win. I think an even younger child (see other reviews) could learn this, and enjoy it. It’s attractive, colorful, the pictured items are easy to identify (not abstract so it’s difficult to know what they are, as in some books and games) and it comes packaged in a very nice sturdy reusable container. The entire thing is designed to appeal to young children, and the adults in their life. Highly recommend.

Recommended for: English native speakers K ~ 2, ESL both adult and childeren students at basic level as a learning tool, and a party quick game for all ages How to Play: There are a few variations of playing games with Spot it! The basic idea is to be the fastest player to spot the matching animal between two cards and call it out loud. Depending on which game you choose, the players may either put the card on a draw pile or discard it. Quality: The images are appealing and printed clearly and the cards are durable enough. Fun Factor: Exciting and unpredictable if cards shuffled well between plays Both groups, adults and children, really got into the game. The game is exciting and competitive to them both. Educational Application: For young learners and ESL learners, I have made some flash cards for my students to learn and play simple board games that I prepared. Once they are familiar enough with the names of the animals, we play Spot it jr. Animals. After a few games, we get an amazing result from the students. They can recognize and tell the names of the animals like in their mother tongue. Caution Needed with extremely competitive players with hot temper or players are still learning about sportsmanship Modification to the rule to take the hazardous heat down a notch: Instead of instant death at the end of the game, I have modified the rule to make it similar to Uno. When a player wins, the winning score is the sum of the rest of the players' remaining cards or the cards he/she has collected. We set a target score like 20 or 50 depending on how much play time is allowed. This way every player may all win some points. Well, I said, "may." My Wishes: 1. There are only 31 cards. I wish there were more like Spot It! original. However, I understand that this set is designed for small children and that's why there are fewer cards. 2. There are different sets of animals Spot It. I hope the above review is helpful to you.

Great game! This kept my 4.5-year olds very happy while traveling. The pictures on the cards are bright and engaging. The rules are easy to learn and teach. The multiple ways to play mean that there is more to do before getting bored, and also let the kids play either competitively or cooperatively. The sturdy tin is good for protecting the cards and keeping them together; I have several other card games where the container got destroyed right away--that won't happen here. The small size makes this easy to pack. The circle shape makes this a little more quirky and good for a group to crowd around (there's no "up" so everyone has a good view). This is also something that adults can enjoy playing, at least more than a lot of other kids' games. My only minor complaint is that the cards could be a bit tougher. Little fingers can beat these up a bit, but no more than regular cards.

I don’t know if the developers did this on purpose, but this game is basically a fun version of the cognitive regulation tasks done in research studies on cognitive regulation. The premise of this game is to find the matching animals on any two cards– every card has a match. The catch is, each card has animals of different sizes. If you happen to get two cards where the matching animal is large, it is easy– but most often the match is between two different sized animals. The brain automatically focuses on the large animals and the animals with the most contrasting patterns. Thus, children have to suppress that first impulse of the brain and search harder. They also learn that there are multiple “rules” in this game, it isn’t always the big animals that match for example. This means they have to practice switching rules from card to card. This is a cognitive regulation skill that develops slowly from age 3 to 5. This was hard for my son when we first got it — I think he was just three or soon to be three. When we first started I literally stacked the deck– I put all the easier matches first so he would get the hang of it. I don’t do that anymore now that he is 3.5 years, but I notice that he takes much longer on the first matches and then once his brain gets into it, he gets faster. We see this in the studies as well, younger kids make more mistakes and have slower reaction time than older kids. This is a great game to keep in your bag to bring out while waiting at a restaurant and it’s an awesome game to help them practice a skill they are developing during this time.

Bought this for my 4 year old son, and despite his initial hesitation about a game being a boring gift for a birthday, he really, REALLY likes it. He happens to also love learning about animals (thanks Wild Kratts & PBS!) so I think that the cards all contained animals definitely helped. The disappointing thing about this game is that it says on the box there are five variations to play, but sadly our container did not come with any instructions at all inside the tin or in the box. Pros: * Easy for young kids * Fast game play * Multiple variations means things don't get too repetitive Cons: * Missing instructions * Packaging could be more efficient * Not sure how well the cards hold up to kid/toddler play

Such an inexpensive game that kids really enjoy. I like that there is a variety of ways to play the game too because it can be adjusted for multiple difficulty levels depending on age of players. Great gift.

We bought this as a family game to play with our 3 year old son. This is by far his favorite game, and he chooses this one to play whenever we have a game night. It did not take him long to understand the concept of finding the animals that match on the two cards. Some of the animals he did not know, but it was good for helping him to learn new animal names. The instructions include five variations of playing, which keeps the game fresh. Some versions are a little over his head at this point, but that means that we will have some new ways to play when he gets older! We currently like version 3, where each player has a pile of cards to get rid of, the best. The cards are thick paper and fairly sturdy (but can get crinkly if they get mysteriously wet...) The tin is nice and the lid stays on well. Since it is a game where the person who is the quickest wins, it is sometimes a struggle to find the balance between giving our son extra time to find the match "first" so that he does not get frustrated and not just letting him win. There are times that he does legitimately find the match first, so it's not too painful. I would recommend this game to anyone with kids our son's age.