Programmino is a children’s educational game for “orientation and spatial awareness” produced by French company Djeco . This is not a game per se, as much as a playful learning tool for children to become more comfortable with directions and develop their problem solving, spatial logic, and algorithmic thinking skills.
The game contains 24 challenges on 12 double-sided task cards. The first half of the challenges are Level 1 (green). For these challenges, a child needs to take the animal pictured on the card to a certain object also pictured on the card. To do that they have to lay the direction arrows on the top of the squares marked on the card. The second part of the challenges are Level 2 (yellow). In these cases, you see the route marked on the card and the child needs to figure out where the animal will end up if they take this route. They can use the arrows to aid them, or if they are comfortable enough, they can solve the challenge in their mind.
A few more game details:
· Age 4-6 is recommended by Djeco, I would say depending on the child’s level can probably be used for 3-7 year olds. At the age of 5 my daughter can solve all the challenges in the game. However, she occasionally gets confused with Level 2 challenges when doing them in her mind.
· This is primarily a 1-player game. However, children can take turns putting down the tiles if needed.
· All the parts are of excellent quality: thick cardboard challenge cards, wooden tiles with direction arrows, sturdy box. Everything is cute and colorful but not too bright. Also a good size for little hands.
Our Experience
We use this game as a 1-player learning tool. It definitely requires parental guidance and supervision, especially for younger children.
Overall, I like Programmino for what it is designed for. There are a lot of electronic resources available these days with similar ideas; however, I see value in this game as it feels more hands on with the thick cards, colorful characters, and wooden tiles. It gives the child a feeling of playing with blocks when setting the path rather than just doing a paper exercise or hitting buttons on the phone.
Our twist: I have made our own cubes for this game (pictured). They are essentially some arrows that I scanned, printed and glued on the little wooden cubes bought at the Dollar Store. Each cube has all 4 directions on them. Benefits:
· I find that it is more fun to lay the path with the cubes as it feels more 3D.
· The child also needs to do some extra thinking when they take each cube and rotate it to find the solution.
· You can extend the game by combining a few cards together and “sending” animals on different missions, since you have more tiles (cubes). For example, here we sent the chicken from card 5 to visit the pig from card 3.
· Finally, you can add an extra play element by having the child throw a cube as a die, then trying to find if there is a spot on the challenge card route where they can put the direction arrow rolled. A win-win: more fun AND makes them think more!
Final Thoughts
Would I recommend Programmino? Definitely Yes! This game is great for anyone looking to improve their child's logical and visuospatial skills and is prepared to direct and supervise the play.
Did my child like it? – Yes, though this is not a game she would pick on her own to play in her free time. But as an educational game, she enjoys it!
