Mission to Space

 

Mission to Space - A double handed activity.

 

 

The goal of Mission to Space is to take your spaceship into space, dodging planets and meteors, and come back without losing your astronaut. It's going to take concentration and coordination to play. 

 

It will be easier to describe if you see a picture of it first.

 

As you can see, all pieces are wood except for the string and the steel marbles (the astronauts). There are three wooden pieces, easy assembly. The red game board is 12 1/4" x 9 1/8" and sits on the black base. There are two pegs at the bottom of the game board and two holes on the base. The double-sided maze slips in through a slit at the top of the game board. In the image, it is already inserted into the game board. However, so that you can see both sides of it, another maze board is lying on the table top. You will get one maze board with a different maze on each side. All the yellow circles on the maze are actually holes, you are looking through to the yellow game board behind it. If a marble drops through a hole it will go to the bottom and roll out to the front on either the left or the right, as you see in the image above.

There is one long string that goes in one side of the board and comes out the other. The string is threaded through the orange spaceship so that if you pull the string you will raise the spaceship. The string looks like a black V on the front of the game board because the weight of the spaceship has pulled it down. Follow the string to the top and you will see that it goes through two holes at the top and hangs down the sides. There is a small yellow spaceship at each end of the string. You will hold these spaceships as you pull the sting through the holes to raise and lower the orange spaceship.

The orange spaceship has a hole at the top and this is where you will place your marble as you prepare to play. The games comes with only 2 marbles, so don't lose them. The game will be useless without them.

This is a one-person game. Time yourself as you travel to the top and back. Then try to beat your time.

Object:

Move the spaceship from the bottom of the game board to the top, and then back to the bottom, without losing your astronaut (steel ball) in one of the holes.

Set up:

Stand the game board in the black base. Slip the maze board in through the slit at the top of the game board. Put one steel marble into the hole on the orange spaceship. 

Play:

You are going to have to dodge the holes as you raise your spaceship. Do this by pulling the string. Pull the string on the left side to move the spaceship to the left. Pull the string on the right side to move the spaceship to the right. Both hands will be used at the same time, but will usually be pulling differently. There is a white path printed on the maze that weaves through the holes. You can follow the path to the top and back down if you want.

Work on spatial relations, coordinated use of both sides, attention, motor planning, eye-hand coordination, visual motor integration, visual tracking, play and leisure exploration and participation 

In the box: Wooden game board, base and maze board, 2 metal marbles

Raging Rapids

Raging Rapids logic game.

Let me say up front that I was surprised to find that there are only two challenges to this game.  Each challenge requires you to dump all the paddlers out of the raft, shake them up, and then fit them all back into the raft.  Each paddler has blanks and tabs similar to a jigsaw puzzle. 

 

Challenge one requires you to place all the paddlers back in the raft facing forward. Challenge two requires you to place all the paddlers back into the raft facing in the opposite direction. Each challenge offers two hints. Sure that I would not need the hints, I go to work.

 

Eventually I give in and look at hint number one. Each paddler has a small letter on the bottom, from A-L. This hint is the location of one paddler, paddler E. I work awhile longer and start fearing that I will not be able to get the puzzle together and fit back into the box. Now I look at hint two. It is the location of a second paddler. Frequently when you are given the location of a piece or two from a brainteaser puzzle, the rest of the pieces fall almost effortlessly into place. Not with this puzzle.

 

This game has one of those boxes that I hate - a big open hole on the front requires that you keep track of the plastic insert that is form-fitted over the raft and paddlers. If you don't get the paddlers into place, you cannot put the plastic piece over that keeps them from falling out of the box. Therefore, after you put it together once you might want to write the answer on the challenge sheet in case someone gets stuck and you don't have the time to work the puzzle to put it away. Overall I was not much impressed.

Try this:

• Start by leaving all the pieces in the raft except two or three. Ask the individual to finish working the puzzle. Take one more out each time the individual works the puzzle to increase the difficulty gradually.
• Record the location of each piece. Ask the individual to place each paddler into the raft by location, such as piece K is in the third row, far left.
• Use consistent positional language such as left, right, middle, first, second, front, back, etc. .
• Work on spatial reasoning, visual closure, manual dexterity, executive functions, leisure exploration and participation

In the box: 1 plastic raft, 12 plastic paddlers, 1 pamphlet with challenges

Ages 8+, 1 player

 

If you are interested in purchasing this item or just want more information, click on the image below.