Ball Balance Puzzle

Ball Balance Puzzle

When I saw Ball Balance Puzzle I thought it might be a good two-handed activity, plus it came with 10 whimsical templates so kids would be encouraged to play over and over. However, this game did not work out for me.

This is a plastic unit which measures 9.5" x 6 3/4" and has a clear plastic cover that cannot be removed. There are six small balls inside that are free to roll, and the unit has six small holes where the balls are supposed to land. There is a rounded hole on each side of the unit for your hands. They would have been OK if you were holding the unit slanted toward you, but it was awkward to put my hands in the holes while holding the unit flat, so I didn't use the holes. There is a slit in the top of the unit where a template card will go. 
 
There are 10 template cards, each with a different, colorful, kid-themed picture. There are six holes in a template card that line up with the six holes in the unit. Slip a card into the unit and roll the balls around trying to get them to land in the holes and stop moving. Play until all the balls are stopped and sitting in the holes.

Template cards

I played with the unit about 10 minutes before I decided to send it back. The holes are shallow, so it is difficult to get a ball to stop, let alone stay. A ball may dip into a hole but almost always just flies right back out.

For some reason, while you are tipping the unit the balls tend to hug the sides of the unit. You can tip the unit quite a bit before the balls will roll away from the sides. It seems to defy gravity, and I looked at it quite a bit, but couldn't figure out why it was happening. The balls aren't sticky, there is nothing magnetic about it, I don't know. When you are trying to keep one or more balls in holes that are already too shallow while tipping to get the other balls in holes, you can't afford to tip the unit too much or the ones already in the holes will roll back out. Which is what happened. So not only was it very difficult to get a ball to stop in a hole, once there it would roll back out once I tipped the unit enough so the balls would move away from the sides. 

I thought it was a good idea, just not executed well.

  

Smart Cookies

Smart Cookies - A logic, deductive reasoning, problem solving game

Smart Cookies has won multiple awards and is one of six games in the Brain Builder Series by Foxmind. Smart Cookies exercises deductive reasoning, logic and problem solving skills, without taking an hour to play just one challenge. I have blogged about others from this series, that I use and love, and will place the links below. I have a half dozen different game brands that I follow for new game releases and FoxMind is one of them.

The box and instructions don't even give a back story for the "Einstein" look-alike baker and the tray of cookies, they're just all about the puzzles. Foxmind also has a game called Meta-Forms that, from what I can tell, is the same game, just without the whimsical cookie theme. Showing a brainy kid on the box, it uses solid color triangles, circles and squares on a grid instead of cookies on a tray. I just thought the cookies looked more whimsical and fun.

The 3 x 3 grid (cookie tray) is 7 7/8" square. One cookie will go into each space on the grid, so nine cookies total. The cookies are a solid material with a slightly rubbery feel to them. The circle is 1.5" in diameter, the square is 1.5" square and the triangle is slightly larger. There are three colors (red, blue, yellow) and three shapes. 

The puzzle book is spiral bound and measures 7 1/16" x 6 1/2". There are 64 puzzles/challenges divided into eight different sections, increasing in difficulty as you go. Each section has an example page which sets up a couple of rules, giving you more options (less certainty) for where pieces could go. All answers are given in the back of the book.

I love these types of puzzles because they push you to keep applying what you are learning to more and more difficult puzzles. I have blogged about many of these 1-player logic games from the makers of SmartGames and ThinkFun. Check them out here.

Here are images of puzzles number 1 and number 64 and their solutions. Checks in a box mean that a certain piece or color must go into that space on the grid.  An X in a box means that the shape or color shown cannot go into that space. An arrow means that that shape or color piece must be placed going in that direction, perhaps in relation to another piece. A puzzle may show you a shape without a color, a shape with a color, or just a color blob.

Puzzle 1                                                                  Solution 1

 

Puzzle 64                                                    Solution 64

Work your way from puzzle number 1 to number 64. This one is fun in therapy because each puzzle only has nine pieces and can be figured out in a reasonable amount of time. Someone might do three or four puzzles in 15 minutes at the beginning and maybe one puzzle in 15 or 20 minutes at the end. With 64 puzzles you can work on this game over several months.

Here are other FoxMind games I have blogged about from the Brain Builder Series. I would recommend any of them.

• Equilibrio - Build structures upright, some with challenging balance aspects such as building on round blocks.
• Perspecto - Build structures from a variety of perspectives (up to three views per puzzle). The old name for this game is Cliko. The Perspecto puzzle book is the exact same book as the Cliko book, just a new name.
• Architecto - Build structures upright.
• Tangramino - Build structures flat on the table.

Try this:

• Look at the answer key and place several of the pieces. Let the individual figure out the rest. As he gets better, reduce the number of candies you place until he is doing it alone.
• Use the game in a simpler way, if the player is unable to solve the challenges, to promote spatial awareness. Show each answer page to the individual and have him line up the cookies on the tray in the same locations.
• Think out loud as you solve a puzzle and the individual looks on to help the player learn how to eliminate certain possibilities and pinpoint correct locations.
• Complete a puzzle yourself, reasoning out loud as you go, as the individual watches. After completing the puzzle, take the pieces out and see if the individual can solve the puzzle again on his own.
• Work on logic, deductive reasoning, problem solving, manual dexterity, visual discrimination, spatial relations, visual closure, process skills, executive functioning skills, play and leisure exploration and participation

In the box: 1 grid, 9 cookie pieces, 1 puzzle book

If you are interested in purchasing this game, you will probably have to look at ebay or another source like that. I did not buy this game when it first came out and now cannot find it on Amazon, so had to go to ebay to get it. If you don't like the prices you see, just wait and something cheaper may come along soon. It seems that everyone wants double or triple a game's "new" price once it is not available on sites like Amazon or Walmart.