With all the tech out there these days, sometimes it’s good to get kids right back to the classics. Box & Balls, from Fat Brain Toys, combines two imaginative classics—wooden boxes and bouncy balls—for an all-new, free-play, creative game.
This rolling, bouncing, banking, stacking, and nesting game has dozens of play options. The eight wooden nesting boxes each come with suggested games printed on the side, showing players how to set up the boxes in different challenges. Once set, kids can try to bounce one of the eight bouncy balls in the target box.
For example, Box 3 has a diagram that maps out how to play the Roll In (pictured above). Kids line up the boxes upside down in descending size order, then leave a gap between Boxes 7 and 8. Box 8 is flipped right side up and becomes the target box. In this game, kids are challenged to bounce the ball down each of the boxes and then into the target box, which is, in fact, much more challenging than it seems. It takes a steady hand and a bit of trial-and-error to get the bounce just right, but the payoff is sweet: As the ball bounces down the seven boxes to the eighth, it sounds like a wooden xylophone. It sings your way into victory!
These suggested games are great for beginners to get started on the gameplay, and to develop skill and technique. But once they’ve become victorious over these challenges, they can set up different play configurations of their own, and try to strategize their way through to the end. With no right or wrong way to set up the boxes, play is only limited by kids’ imaginations. Kids can arrange the boxes in clusters and other setups to challenge themselves, friends, or family.
Whether little ones want to experiment with dexterity and hand-eye coordination, older kids try to challenge their friends, or a family keeps score with the box numbers on family game night, players of all ages can get in on this classic fun.
