Snake Oil Salesmen? (Out of the Box Review)

While I am a self-avowed Curriculum Junkie, we always enjoy it when the TOS Review Crew is sent something extra fun for review. How delightful that our last review for the 2014 run was just that. We were sent Snake Oil ~ Party Potion (for ages 8 and up), a product of Out of the Box Games (other crew members received the original Snake Oil game for ages 10+, so be sure to check out the link at the end of my review to see how these games were received in their homes).

The basic premise is that there is a “Customer” and there are “Snake Oil Salesmen” (with the customer rotating throughout the round till everyone has had a turn). The customer draws a customer card and chooses to be the character on either side. The Salesmen (Everyone else) draw 6 cards each and choose to use 2 cards to create a product that they will pitch to the customer.

Here is an entertaining little video that introduces the game and how to play: 

The game can be played with 3-6 players, or adapted to group play game-show style, with a host, 3 contestants (salesmen), and an audience. We personally felt it worked best with at least 4 players. There was a handful of cards that we decided to remove from the deck since we're not fond of gross humor in our house (potty, snot, pimple, butt) and a couple others (skull, spirit) that didn't fit with us well. Also, for some of my readers who stay away from wizards and magic, there are customer cards that include those characters, but they can be avoided easily enough. 

We enjoyed playing out of the box, and all over the room (the couch, the rocking chair, the desk...), which didn't make for very good picture taking opportunities, but I did record a somewhat edited transcript of some of the rounds so you can get a feel for the game. I am going to list the customers and the products that were being pitched to. You can decide which product you would have chosen as the winner. I will list the winners below my disclaimer in this post, and you can see if your choices match our customers. The participants in this record were Mom, Eldest (17), Middlest (14), and Youngest (7).

Waitress

• Smile Sponge ~ When you wipe the table, your customers will be guaranteed to smile, and less than 10% tips will be a thing of the past.
• Jar Locker~ Holds everything on the plate, so you never need to worry about dropping any plates when your tray is filled to overflowing.
• Tummy Chair~ Releases chemicals that create space in the tummy, so your customers will always have room for dessert. 

Grandma

• Volcano Grave~ If you’re at a volcano that is erupting, you can use the Volcano Grave to ‘Bury” the eruption.
• Memory Ribbon~ Will help Grandmas remember memories~ rub the ribbon while thinking of something, and when you touch it later, the memory will return.
• Yarn Security~ Insurance for your yarn~ will replace your yarn if it gets stolen, lost, or damaged by an act of God.

Fisherman

• Forest Puddle ~ A private Puddle in the Forest, where the largest bass are found more easily, because there is less acreage for them to hide in.
• Video Coat~ A coat that plays videos, for when you’re sitting around doing nothing while you’re fishing.
• Spider Escape~ A spray that will eliminate any spider you run into on the path, on the shore, or in your boat.

Olympic Athlete

• Peace Dust~  Sprinkle it on to calm your nerves before your competition.
• Trail Putty ~  to fix the spots that might be broken or rough (or missing manhole covers on the way to the event venue...).
• Tickle Tub ~  to distract your dog when it’s taking a bath. (?)

School Bus Driver

• Victory Slipper~ Wear it so your favorite athlete or team will win!
• Fact Rug~ for the aisle of your bus~ It will help to avoid spill and slips and falls and bruises, but not only that, it is educational~ it will help the students on your bus learn their mathematical, grammatical, geographical, and any other ical fact they may need on the way to school. AND not only that, it will so entertain your students that they will be quite as mice.
• Guilt Pants~ for the misbehaving children on the bus, that don’t always tell the truth (Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire?)  These are pants that you put on the child (like snowpants), and they will tell you the truth!

OUR THOUGHTS

Littlest: I love playing Snake Oil because it’s fun

Middlest: This is a really great game. It makes people think and be creative. This would be a fun game for Youth Group! 

Eldest: Snake Oil is entertaining to watch people play, but it isn’t great for the literalist.

Mom: Snake Oil is a fun, easy to learn game that helps to promote creativity, and encourage public speaking skills when played with theatrical expression. Out of the Box Games even offers some extra "Classroom activities"  for 5th grade+ to expand on those themes~ I like having more options, and it makes me feel better about having the occasional game days. :) 

Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty 

• Company: Out of the Box Games
• Product: Snake Oil ~ Party Potion
• Ages: 8 (or early readers) to adult
• Price: $14.99

You can visit Out Of the Box Games on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube

Please click the banner below to visit the TOS Review Crew and see what others had to say about Snake Oil - Party Potion and the Original Snake Oil games. As always, I hope that this review was useful to you as you choose where best to spend your homeschool budget.

*NEWSFLASH* This is my last TOS Review Crew for the 2014 calendar year, and it marks my 250th Review for the TOS Review Crew since it started in 2008. Milestone worth mentioning... :)
Blessings~

Waitress~ Jar Locker

Grandma ~ Yarn Security

Fisherman ~ Forest Puddle 

Olympic Athlete ~ Trail Putty 

School Bus Driver ~ Fact Rug

How did these choices stack up against your choices? 

Delighted to Learn? Oh yes!

This week a group of us are talking about Delight Directed Learning. 

I try, when possible to let my children's learning be delight directed, but what exactly does that mean?

Lego Challenge~ make different
 structures with the same bricks

First Rainbow. Painted while
I was in the other room.

Well, for my Littlest delight directed really does mean following his lead. Since he is only 5 years old, I'm a firm believer in letting him be . . . "Five." In my estimation that means allowing him to explore, read, draw, paint, build, play, and do all the things 5 year old children should be doing.

We do a little bit of reading and math, but those are things he enjoys ( he asks to play Ooka Island and do math almost every day, if I haven't brought it up myself).

We also use Five In A Row, which is pretty much delight directed. Sometimes he gets to choose which book we row, and he always enjoys our time reading and exploring (it's also fabulous when everything lines up, like when we rowed Katy and the Big Snow, and got... a BIG Snow! :)

We have a huge number of educational apps on my iPad, many of which are reading and math oriented, with others being more logic and puzzle oriented. Some favorites are Rocket Math, KinderBach Music, and a variety of storybooks, as well as the more typical games.

As they get older it becomes a little more difficult to keep things delight directed, but we do try~ sometimes Middlest gets to choose some science topics (He particularly enjoyed our time reviewing the Physics and Digital Science Task Cards from Creek Edge Press), and we're in the midst of reviewing SuperCharged Science, which is great for delight-directed learning.


For Eldest and Middlest both, sometimes they get some input into what books they will read for Literature or History, but it does get a little harder to incorporate that "Delight" into every day "Math, Science, and Writing."

Thankfully, Eldest enjoys math, and doesn't mind science, so while those aren't totally delightful, whenever she gets excited about something there we try to dig a little deeper. I also enjoy the fact that when she is interested in something nature or art oriented, she just goes for it, with little to no instigation on my part.

Middlest is a researcher extraordinaire . . . when the topic excites him.  MY task becomes turning what he's learning about his current interest into definable schoolwork. This year his interest is fishing, maybe he will write a report on the different kinds of fish found in our state. Make a poster showing what sorts of lures attract which fish... that sort of thing. Create a chart showing what temperatures and weather are optimal for catching each variety of fish.

A couple of years ago he was all about skateboards, so guess what we put together for our Educational Achievement Fair? A tri-fold on the physics of skateboarding, with a display of "Tricks" he could pull with his finger-boards.

By and large, my feeling about delight directed learning is that when a child shows an interest in something, you let them run with it. It doesn't necessarily take over everything school-ish (although that is a possibility at times).

When the kids pull our our kapla blocks and keva planks to build, they are working on engineering and physics skills~ sometimes what they come up with it pretty fun! :) Marble runs and tall towers that look terribly unstable . . . but surprise us by NOT falling down. . . That is delight directed learning!

When we discovered monarch eggs on our milkweed and watched as they hatched and grew into caterpillars, then chrysalis and finally emerged as butterflies... that was delight directed learning.

When the robins decided to build a nest in our window, next to the air conditioner by our back porch, we took pictures every day from building the nest to full fledged baby birds... that was delight directed learning!

Orchid flowers beaded
by eldest, for a friend

Close-up of beaded Orchid

Delight directed learning can be planned: Choose your next book~ Choose your next unit study (Amanda Bennett anyone???), or it can catch you blissfully by surprise the next time your child asks a question about something they've seen, or shows you a project they want to try (Or that they've done without your total knowledge).

What do YOU consider delight directed learning?

Blessings~

For more Teaching Creatively, with Delight Directed Learning....