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Zillio Mini Mountian and 2-D Playground Review and Giveaway!

When I was pregnant with both children, first and foremost, I prayed they would be healthy, have their daddy’s long legs, and please God, do NOT let them have my brain that can’t do the math.  I struggled with math from 5th grade and beyond.  It seemed there was always just something I kept “missing.”  I still have nightmares about calculus and I haven’t been in school since graduating from college in the 90’s!    I have tried very hard not to instill my fear of math into my children, and instead have attempted to incorporate math into their lives in a positive way as much as possible.  When I was asked to review Zillio’s Mini Mountain and 2-D Playground, I was very excited as this was just one more way to help them learn!   It seems Zillo had me in mind when they designed their products!   From the website:

zillio“What truly sets Zillio apart from all the rest of educational games and math manipulatives is that Zillio provides the missing link necessary to succeed in critical thinking. The design behind this playful structure allows children to see, touch and systematically manipulate numbers to reveal the meaning behind math.”

As soon as our package arrived, it was a real attention-getter and my kids wanted to see how it worked.  As a teacher, I liked the bright, cheerful colors and of course the fact that the games are hands-on.  Anyone in the education field can tell you that almost every type of learner benefits from tactile experiences.  It doesn’t take an education degree to tell you kids like to touch and feel everything!  The Mini Mountain is inviting and instantly has kids asking, “What is that?”  The mountain and playground cover all the basics – counting, addition, and subtraction for your little guys, and multiplication, division, fractions, number lines, ratios, equivalency, and algebra for your bigger kids.

Just 'cause Mom is scared of math doesn't mean I have to be!
Just 'cause Mom is scared of math doesn't mean I have to be!

We played the Mountain Goat Scramble using the Mini Mountain and it was a snap to set up and easy to learn.  My 5 year old, Emily played with me as her partner but Nicolas, age 8, was ok on his own!  I didn’t find it too difficult for him to understand once we got the basics down and he enjoyed the challenge of figuring out what combinations he could come up with using the dice in order to move one of his “goats.”  As a teacher, I think the Mini-Mountain or Mega-Mountain would make a great addition to a classroom as part of small group centers.  Later, we used the 2-D Playground to play Homing Pigeons.  Again, Em needed a little of my help but Nicolas was a solo mathmetician and enjoyed playing.  The 2-D playground is perfect when you are limited on space but still want the benefits that the Mini Mountain offers.  Both the Mini Mountain and the 2-D playground come with guides giving you all the details on how the games work, and what I liked best was the listing of all the games from basic to most advanced, with a spreadsheet-style checklist of what skills are developed or practiced and you advance in your math skills.  Every summer I try to do a little bit with the kids each week to keep their school skills sharp without it feeling like “school.”  Zillio’s products are perfect for this!  I can’t wait to enjoy playing more Zillio games with my kids.

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Giveaway

I can’t let just the people in my house become Math Einsteins!  One lucky winner can choose from the Mini Mountain or the 2-D playground.

How to enter:

1. Visit Zillio Games and tell me the name of one game you can play with Zillio!

Additional entries:

1. Blog about this giveaway and link to The Not-So-Blog and Zillio (10 extra entries).

2. Follow me (@BridgetteLA) on Twitter and Tweet this giveaway. Every time you tweet you get an additional entry! Unlimited! (You must have over 50 Twitter followers to qualify for unlimited entries!)

3. Subscribe to my blog.

4. Become a Fan of The Not-So-Blog and Zillio on Facebook.

5. Place my blog banner on your sidebar.

6. Subscribe to my Feed.

Contest ends at 11:59pm CST on April 26th. Prizes not claimed in 72 hours will be forfeited. Open to U.S. Residents only.

This product review is the opinion of the Experimental Mommy. Other may have a different experience with the product. I was not compensated for this review other than a product sample provided by Zillio. All opinions are 100% mine.

 

 

 

104 thoughts on “Zillio Mini Mountian and 2-D Playground Review and Giveaway!”

  1. The homing pigeons game sounds fun! Any product that can help with math would be a winner in our house 🙂

  2. I don’t have a blog, but I did post your blog and the chance to win the Zillio on facebook. I just read about the Zillio yesterday for the first time. It looks really cool! I would love to have a way to teach math to children without the use of tons of worksheets. It looks like this is a great way to do that!

  3. You can play Mountain Goat Scramble 1 ….wow so many games, it looks amazing!

    mainlandmama at gmail dot com

  4. Pingback: April Giveaway Linkys | Family-Friendly Reviews | Giveaways | Mom Blog

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