Cranium Polar Bear A-B-C Review

I bought Polar Bear A-B-C at Target for an affordable $9.99.  Besides the price, another good selling point is that it is created by educational manufacturer, Cranium, and it incorporates preschool spelling skills with a fun-for-kids game.  Not only does he learn to match letters, words, and pictures, but the game also gave me an opportunity to teach concepts like setting up the game, taking turns, winning and losing, and playing by the rules.

Speaking of rules, I didn't see any when we opened the box.  "Well," I thought, "how hard can this be to figure out?"   I set out the plastic "pond" on the game board and deposited the magnetic letters inside.  I figured that the object was to cast the fishing pole into the pond to retrieve a letter.  (By the way, the fishing pole is completely immobile--you don't actually reel in the letters so much as you stick the pole in and pull it out).  I wasn't sure what the purpose of the plastic polar bear was, so I just set him on the game board as a mascot, which coincidentally gave me the opportunity to teach a new vocabulary word..  

I gave each of us a card with words like "cape" and "pail" and instructed the little one to go fish for a letter.  He knows his alphabet--both upper and lower case--as well as their sounds so this game reinforces more than it teaches.  He got a kick out of fishing for the letter, announcing what he picked up, and then placing it in the correct spot on his board.  He also loves handing me the pole and announcing that it's my turn.

Everything went well with our first game, until I realized that there weren't any duplicate letters.  He had the "a" and I had the "p" so it became apparent that neither one of us was going to spell the word on our boards.  Finally, when all of the letters had been pulled from the pond, he generously insisted that he would share his letters, and he gave me his "a" so that I could complete my board.  Then he jumped up and down and celebrated by singing "Mina, you won!"   Awww...this is why we spoil our grandkids.

I have since learned that we are only supposed to use one word card, take turns fishing for letters, and the player that pulls and places the final letter is the winner.  There are 15 cards to choose from, each with matching pictures.  Even though I goofed with the first game, we still had tons of fun together, reinforced his spelling skills, and he learned a new word.

Speaking of mascot, I discovered what the polar bear is for.  Each time you complete a word, your polar pal takes a dip in the pond.  Awesome.

What's in the box?

Polar Bear A-B-C includes polar bear figurine, magnetic fishing pole, plastic lake, 13 magnetic letters, 15 word cards, and game board.

WARNING:CHOKING HAZARD-Small Parts. Not For Children Under 3