Smart Mom’s Toy Box: 12 Games to Build Your Brain1. Blink: The World’s Fastest Card Game It’s faster than you think! Two players race to be the first to play all of their cards and quickly try to match the shape, count, or coloron the cards. The first player out of cards wins. Fast and portable, Blink is instant fun for everyone. 2. Hue Knew? and Hue Knew? On the Go! A little like UNO™, Hue Knew? is a fast-paced card game and is perfect for travel. What you see isn’t always what you get. This game challenges players to resist quick answers and say a color rather than reading a word. Be the first to find the words that are printed in the correct color, then grab the appropriately colored peg. Game includes 10 colored pegs and 40 game cards. Can you match the color to the word? Can you throw your opponent for a loop by placing a word card on top of the color card? Hue Knew? is a clever, brain-scratching game you’ll play at home or on the go for ages six and older. 3. In a Pickle Can a giraffe fit in a phone booth? Does a sofa fit in a shopping cart? It all depends on how you size it up in this game of creative thinking and outrageous scenarios. Try to win a set of cards by fitting smaller things into bigger things. There’s some juice in a pickle, in a supermarket, and in a parking lot. Play the fourth word card to claim the set unless one of your opponents can trump with a larger word. The player with the most sets at the end is the winner! This is for two to six players, ages 10 and older. 4. Jax Doodle Dice Game Create a ‘doodle’ with a few rolls of the Doodle Dice! There’s a different doodle pictured on each card in the deck. If your Doodle Dice match a doodle on one of the cards, you keep that card. Block an opponent’s turn or take one of their cards away. Collect one card of each color and you win! It’s the fun, challenging way for everyone in your family to be a ‘doodle artist’! It’s a fun game for two to six players, ages six and older. 5. Logic Links Also comes in Level B, Level C, and Level D Logic Links requires you to think sideways, backwards, right to left and up and down as you read the clues that lead you to the one and only correct answer. Each puzzle is comprised of a series of clues that instruct the player where to place colored chips and solve the puzzle. 6. Ninety-Nine or Bust Ninety-Nine or Bust is a highly educational, fast action card game that is fun for all ages. The object of the game is not to lose a round and a game token. This fantastic game teaches quick addition skills and is extremely educational and fun for ages seven and older. 7. Rhyming Bingo Learn 28 pairs of rhyming words by matching words, photos, or both. The classic bingo game kids love best is now an even better educational tool that delivers more fun. Use the 4 x 2 grid for younger students. This game features kid-pleasing photos and incorporates new teacher-requested learning elements. This game can be played in large or small groups. 8. Rhyming Match Me Flash Cards Engage learners’ matching, memory and word or picture recognition skills with award-winning Match Me Cards. Pictures provide letter sound clues. Each set has six child-pleasing, easy-to-follow activities for individual and group play. Handy 3″ x 3-7/8″ size is ideal for classroom, home, and travel and comes with 52 two-sided cards in sturdy storage box. 9. Rory’s Story Cubes: Original Rory’s Story Cubes is a pocket-sized creative story generator, providing hours of imaginative play for all ages. With Rory’s Story Cubes, anyone can become a great storyteller and there are no wrong answers. Simply roll the cubes and let the pictures spark your imagination! There are infinite ways to play with Rory’s Story Cubes. You can play alone or with others. Rory’s Story Cubes: Actions Roll the dice and the creative problem solving, language learning, and storytelling begins! “Once upon a time, a giant LAUGHED…”This game contains dice featuring dynamic Action Verb images. Use creativity, problem solving, language learning, and storytelling fun. Use Action Cubes alone or—with the creativity game—Rory’s Story Cubes. It includes nine dice with 54 action images or “picto-verbs.” 10.Shape by Shape by ThinkFun Also comes in Brick by Brick, Square by Square, and Block by Block. Shape by Shape is an advanced Tangram-style game, made more difficult because you also fill in the frame around each shape you make. With 60 challenges, Shape by Shape is a great introduction to conceptual thinking and spatial relationships. 11. Slamwich Slamwich is a fast-flipping card game. Flip and stack this clever loaf of cards to build slamwiches and double deckers. Tomato, cheese, tomato…slap! Get there first and win the pile. But watch out! You’ll have to catch thieves and stop munchers from stealing the stack of cards. Wheny ou’re out of cards, you’re out of the game. The first player to collect all the cards wins. Slamwich is for two to six players, ages six and older. Playing time is about 20 minutes. The game tin contains55 bread-shaped cards and rules of play. 12. Squint Junior Focus on fun! Squint Junior brings the award-winning and creative fun of Squint to the entire family. The 42 simple shape cards are used to build pictures. The 168 Squint Junior cards show the name of an item and give an example of one way of building the picture. This game is for ages eight and older and three to eight players. It takes about five minutes to learn the game and 20 to 30 minutes to play.