Playing as a family with the Osmo!

The reviewer has been compensated in the form of a Best Buy Gift Card and/or received the product/service at a reduced price or for free.

During the summer, I try to do more educational things with the boys. With no school, they seem to think they can watch TV all summer. I’ve been taking them to the library, to the zoo and our local children’s science center. However, I can’t leave the house every day especially with a baby so I’ve been looking for things to do with them that are educational. We struck gold with the Osmo.

The Osmo is a unique gaming accessory for the iPad that comes with games that will change the way your child plays. My children share an iPad but I wouldn’t really consider most of the games they play on them “educational”. So we opened it right up to take it for a spin.

All the accessories work with the special Osmo apps you can download (for free) in the iPad app store. It is designed to work with children ages 5 to 12 but we will get into that a little bit later. I received the starter kit, which works with 5 (of the 6) apps that are available: Tangram, Words, Masterpiece, Newton and Numbers.

Hayden’s favorite app is Newton. He wanted to make the video above to show off how the game works. It helps your puzzle skills and he’s always been the type to love puzzles. The children also love the Tangram app. This works with the shapes shown above to make different animals. Since Noah can’t read yet, this is the first app he tried. In easy mode, he can follow the lines of each shape so he can make whatever is on the screen.

My friend Kim was the first one to try out the Numbers app. It comes with cards with numbers (and some that look like dice) to play the game. She played for almost an hour straight trying to move up as many levels as she could so I’d say it was fun. I personally think that Masterpiece is a little bit harder for younger children. I drew the dog below (just trying it out) and it took me a while to get used to drawing while looking at the iPad screen. It just takes some patients.

Noah also wanted to do a view so we did a short one where he was playing “words”. He starts Kindergarten in the fall so this game is very important for him. He works on his reading, spelling, and recognition of letters. The more advanced you are, the higher the level you can go! Hayden and I played against each other figuring out the words. It is like a speed test.

Overall, we give Osmo 6 thumbs up! The only issues we had were with the apps running a little slow. However, I found out it was because we were using an older iPad. I downloaded the apps to my newer one and the speed picked up. Like I said earlier, it is made for ages 5-12 however, the game is great for all ages. You can purchase the starter set at Best Buy for $79.99. Reminder, it does not come with an iPad.  Let me know if you purchase one!