I ~ Ice Cream Empire

    Playing games is part of our daily life. Not only do we enjoy it, but we have found that they often aid in learning more effortlessly.
    For an example, the game Ice Cream Empire.

    It was a game that used to get quite a lot of table time when Steven was younger. He loved the little trucks that were used as tokens to drive around the gameboard hauling the ice cream chips on the back as we bought and sold ice cream and built our chains of stores across the states.

    He thought it was all great fun, while the teacher part of me smiled at the learning that was unwittingly happening.
    The game board had all the states labeled, and as he was building his chains of stores he was also learning the names and locations of the states.

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    As he bought and sold ice cream he was doing math.

    Though not heavy on the strategic side of games there were critical thinking skills involved in decision making.
    There are two superficial things I really don't like about this game. The first is the artwork on the cover. It looks very unprofessional to me and always makes me cringe just a bit when I see it. The second, the cursive writing. As someone who has taught our children to write in cursive and the care that went into their daily penmanship, the poor display of spacing, slant, and letter formation bugs me a lot.
    

Would I recommend this game? Yes, as far as a fun family game goes it is a decent choice. While not in our top ten list of games, I'm still glad it's part of our collection.