Stop Look and Listen! (Living & Learning Soundtracks Game)

Member Name: mumto3

Product:	Living & Learning Soundtracks Game
Date:	08/01/09 (121 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quick to set up, easy to play, not a long winded game

Disadvantages: None at all

My children love games and we have lots of different ones, I though that the Living & Learning Soundtracks game was something they would enjoy. The game consists of four cards each featuring nine different photographs. There are forty plastic counters in four different colours and a CD containing various short everyday sounds.

To play the game you will need a CD player but other than that there is no setting up or putting together involved. The game is aimed at children aged 3 years and over and you can have between 2 and 4 players. The game is similar to other lotto type games but with sounds.

Once you have your CD player and each player has chosen a picture card you are ready to play. You are advised to pick a number and start the CD at this random number but I usually just press play on track 1. When a sound is heard the players must check their card to see if there is a picture on their card that corresponds with the sound being heard. If they have the corresponding picture they place a coloured plastic counter on the picture. The winner is the first player to place a counter on all nine of their pictures.

The sounds that can be heard on the Soundtracks game include a car, fireworks, a toilet flushing, a telephone ringing, a baby crying, a bicycle, someone snoring, someone skipping, a fire engine and many more.

When my four year old Daughter started school there was a parents evening where we went along to find out how our children would be taught and how the way of teaching English may have changed since we attended school.

While at the meeting the teacher discussed many ways in which we as parents could encourage our children to learn letters, sounds and various other things. The teacher explained that children aren't very good at listening and that to play games or find ways to encourage your child to listen was a good way to help them and is obviously beneficial to their tuition.

One of the ways to encourage listening that the teacher suggested was this Living & Learning Soundtracks game. They have these in my daughters class and they are used as a teaching tool in the class room.

At home my older children aged four and three both love this game and it has hardly been back in the box since we opened it at Christmas. They recognise the sounds very easily as the sounds are clear and are played for long enough for you to have a good listen. I think they also like the game because you don't have to mess about getting it ready to play. As long as you have access to a CD player you can play the game anywhere. I imagine the CD could be good to listen to in the car on a long journey. Obviously you wouldn't have the cards and counters but the children could shout out the sounds they recognised and you could make a game of it that way.

There are other Soundtracks games available including, Nursery Rhymes, animals, Alphabet and Times Tables. The games are currently (Jan 2008) available from www.amazon.co.uk for about £6.83 although there is postage payable on some varieties depending on the Amazon Marketplace supplier.

I would recommend this game to anyone with young children of pre-school age. It is quick and simple and holds their attention. I haven't noticed any vast improvement on their listening skills but we only really bought it for it's entertainment value.

Summary: A great game that encourages young children to listen