GeoBingo World Geography Board Game

As a family, we're all about educational games that are also fun to play. This one is a definite hit with my seven-year-old (and my husband and I enjoy playing it as well). As noted by other reviewers, you receive 50 country cards (constructed of a fairly durable and laminated cardstock), wooden bingo chips, and eight bingo boards. You also have the option of playing more than one bingo board at a time. As for the chips: they are made of wood--won't break! The boards are fairly durable, but should do well if returned to the box after playing the game. The country cards are sturdy and can be shuffled with ease without them instantly developing creases, etc. A few nice features of the cards, apart from the vivid colors that illustrate the country (and those surrounding it): they mention the capital as well as the general population of the designated country; the top of each card, which labels the country you're searching for, is highlighted in purple, pink, green, or orange--this color categorization "illustrates" the continent on which the country belongs. The game DOES have some problems, but as we know, we only have 50 country cards, so not every country out there is depicted. One example of an issue that I had with this game: the Americas are designated as one continent, though in English speaking countries (since post World War II), one distinguishes between North and South America. There are similar issues with some of the other countries with respect to their continent associations. SOLUTION (potential): Pull out a map while playing the game and use it to enhance game play and allow you/your child to get a more definite sense of where each of the countries found in this game are located. While the cards themselves are visually descriptive, the nature of the game does not give you a sense of where you really are. Having a map on hand solves this issue. We actually pulled out another one of our games (the map is decent, but not spectacular on this game, since everything is made small-scale so as to fit on the board) called Name That Country Game so that our daughter could get a better sense of where the country was truly located. We are now using a real map, though, as you get better illustrations. Once we started doing this, our daughter immediately began to get a better sense of "where" she was, and is doing better at identifying the countries and their continents. Essentially, this game can be extremely educational or fairly educational. It all depends on how far you're willing to take it. If you just play Bingo, you'll learn a bit, but if you also take the time to glance at a map, take note of the capitals (and then, on the drive or walk to school or during dinner, do spontaneous, pressure-free quizzes about what continent the country is associated with, the name of its capital, what countries are nearby, etc., it is HIGHLY educational). Another fun thing to do is to talk about the shape of the country and to see if your child can come up with an image that locks the shape of the country in his/her mind. I had done this before, but after reading The Little Man in the Map, which deals exclusively with the United States and attempts to create visual imagery of each of the states (fairly well done, though the rhymed verses help considerably) The Little Man In the Map: With Clues To Remember All 50 States, our family has adopted this strategy. We all remember that Italy is a boot, but Chile could be a snake that's shedding its skin, and inside of Canada is a little bunny with large ears. Definitely a great, unobtrusive teaching tool where you and your child learn together while having fun. We're learning a lot too, and it's a pleasure to see geography transformed from something daunting and intimidating to something fun and imaginative--a game she wants to play!