Just like its name suggests, Yoga Spinner, from ThinkFun, helps spin kids into 54 yoga poses, training them to become flexible, focused, and firm in both body and mind. Designed for kids ages 5 and up, the game steals kids away from tablets, smartphones, or the TV, by offering a healthy indoor group activity for two to four players.
The youngest player begins play by setting the spinner into action. If the spinner lands on a blue, green, or red space, the player must draw a card of the same color and perform the yoga pose the card indicates. If the player can hold the pose for 10 seconds, he or she gets to keep the card. The first player to win a red, green, blue, and white card wins the game.
But there’s more to the game than the red, blue, and green cards. Spaces like Steal a Card, Lose a Card, and Player’s Choice add some luck and chance to the game, allowing players to pass around cards without doing yoga poses. The Partner Up space lets kids draw a card from the white deck, grab a partner, and perform poses that require some teamwork.
Kids should warm up before twisting and turning to assume the different yoga poses. Even if kids have no experience with yoga, each and every card provides a picture of the pose to help guide them, and difficult poses like those in the Partner Up deck feature detailed written instructions on how to form the pose as well. Kids must use patience and common sense while getting into the pose and watch each other closely to avoid injury. Balance and quiet meditation are the pillars of yoga and must be observed to not only win the game but also gain control over the mind as well as the body.
Yoga Spinner provides a great introduction to yoga and will have kids getting into silly positions that will undoubtedly erupt in explosions of laughter, like the Lion pose, which involves sitting on all fours and growling like a lion, and Downward Facing Dog, which resembles a dog stretching its spine. Poses in the Partner Up deck require kids to remain coordinated and maintain their balance to win, but trying to get them right might spur funny accidents—especially when a pose like Half Handstand involves one person standing erect, while lending his or her back to the other to stand upside down in a right angle with hands above his or her head—whew!
Thanks to its fun, fast, and silly gameplay, Yoga Spinner will guarantee a healthy lifestyle for kids; improve their visual perception, spatial reasoning, and motor skills; and strengthen interpersonal communication as they learn to work in groups.
