We recently received some awesome new kids tech that has been a huge hit in our home this summer. Osmo is an award-winning game system that connects hands-on play and learning with iPad interaction.
“I want to play Osmo!” is a phrase we keep hearing, at home and now on our vacation in Florida visiting Grandma and Grandpa this week. We brought it with us during our travels for those times when it’s impossible to play outside in the intense Florida heat or because of those hard summer rain storms.
I’m so glad we brought it along. Just yesterday we went for a drive down to Sarasota to go swimming at our Aunt and Uncle’s house and a deluge hit just as we arrived. The kids staved off their swimming excitement with some Osmo Tangram and Math, two of their favorites. It’s a fun group activity too!
Osmo is designed for kids ages 5 to 12 and comes with a base and different game pieces: Tangrams, Words and Numbers that interact with your iPad (sold separately). There are several apps that you download from the iOs app store that allow you to play.
With Tangram arrange Osmo’s wooden puzzle pieces to match on-screen shapes. Numbers is a math game, and is definitely Ronin’s favorite. Add, count and multiply the tiles to match the numbers on the bubbles on the iPad screen. Popping enough bubbles will free fish into water and unleash a storm of lightning and thunder. The numbers start at single digits but after a while grow in complexity, which is perfect for my little math whiz. He seriously sat for over an hour playing Numbers the first day we got it and has gone back to it multiple times since.
Words is a fun spelling guessing game. Masterpiece is a drawing game offering easy-to-follow lines to learn to create beautiful drawings. Ellie loved this one, being the artist that she is. It was so fun seeing her draw this cute horse (and several others) and then color them in for Grandma and Grandpa.
As a tech-loving parent, I adore the interactivity of Osmo with the kids’ iPad. It’s fun for them but also educational, which is just perfect for the summer. Also the packaging is really cool. It’s magnetized so the boxes for each unit actually stick together, which is great for keeping things organized.
Purchase Osmo at Best Buy for $79.99 for the basic set (that does not include Numbers) and $99.99 for the Osmo Genius Kit (iPad sold separately.)
What fun games are you and the kids playing this summer?
