Review of Civilize This!

For the past month, my children have avidly been playing Wise Alec's Civilize This! travel game and expansion pack, thanks to a free copy in exchange for my review.  Composed of four decks of cards, comprised of 300 questions, and one color die, Civilize This! tests your child's knowledge of ancient, medieval, and modern cultures.  Although Civilize This! is an expansion pack for the Wise Alec Trivia Game, I can truly say that we have thoroughly enjoyed the cards in spite of not owning the original game.

   

Chosen as one of Dr. Toy's 100 best children's products, Civilize This! is recommended for ages 8 and up.  As all homeschoolers know, though, that age is somewhat changeable, depending on your child.  While my ten year-old seems to know most of the answers to the questions on the cards, there are some questions that my six year-olds can answer, too.  The questions are perfect either for review purposes or for trivia.  Because of the cute graphics, and the fun-competitive spirit of the game, my kids don't actually seem to realize that they are learning as they play.  Or,  more correctly, they do realize it; they just don't care! The most important thing to them is playing the game.

Without the original Wise Alec game, for which Civilize This! can act as an expansion pack, the decks of cards themselves are a great travel game.  Envisioned for 2-4 players, Civilize This! can be adapted for more players if you are willing to use your imagination a bit.  Also, because there are two levels of questions on the cards, parents can reasonably play with younger children.

The best thing about Civilize This! is that it can be used in multiple ways.  While it is a fun game in its own right, with set rules, it can also be used as a quiz game for school review, as a means for older children to work with younger children, or as simply something to read (my daughter's favorite use of the game!).  Civilize This! is created by Griddley Games, and it can be purchased from many stores (found on the website) for $14.99.

If your family is looking for a way either to enliven your history studies or to add a fun, new, educational game to family game night, you won't go wrong with Civilize This!  For more opinions on this great game, check out the Crew blog!