My game of the week is Placing the Past by Ginger Fox Games. It’s a timeline game, but different from others I’ve played like Timeline and Chronology. In this game, players are each given 5 cards. Each card mentions one specific historical event. One side has mention of the event. The other side has the date of the event and more details about it. See below.

Each player takes a turn presenting his or her hand of the cards in chronological order to the other players. You can choose to omit two of the cards if you aren’t sure on those ones. The other players look at the order you made. If any player thinks you are wrong about your order, he or she can challenge you by ringing the bell. Then that person gets to rearrange the order. Then the cards are turned over and you all get to see who was right. If the original order was correct, the first player keeps the cars. If the correcting player was correct that player gets the cards. If no one was right, no one gets the cards. Each card represents a point. The player with the most points wins. (Note the color scheme in the photo above is outdated, the cards are now yellow on one side, blue on the other. Much better scheme I think.)

I like this game! It is one of those filler games that you can play in between bigger games, or even on its own if you just have 10-15 minutes to spare and want a game that’s educational but not too heavy. Like after a long day of work when you want to relax but still want to learn a little. I had it in my dining room last week and after Sunday family dinner, my daughter and her husband picked it up to play when I was in the living room reading to their boys. It was fun to listen to them play and talk about the events and what they were learning. The box says 3 or more players, but they played just with two and still enjoyed it.

I just wish it had pictures. That would make it so much more fun. Because it involves a knowledge of world and U.S. history, it is for ages 14 and up, as most kiddos by age 14 have learned the basics of those topics. If you are playing with people younger than 14, who have less than a basic knowledge of history, you might want to ditch the “ring-the-bell-to-challenge” mechanism as it might be too discouraging. The description on amazon, and shown in the image above, says it’s “hilarious.” That’s an over-the-top claim. I can see it maybe being hilarious if you played with people who love history, who have a memory of dates, who love to be competitive, and you played with the bell, as then it’s a race to see who can spot the mistakes first and ring the bell. What would it make it super fun for me would be to play like the game Pictomania where everyone does their work at the same time (drawing a picture in the case of Pictomania, arranging a timeline in the case of this game). Then you look at the other timelines and race to ring the bell. I guess it could be a party game or an icebreaker game if you have the right crowd of people who enjoy intellectual challenges, especially with that modification I just suggested.

You could also play this game in other ways, the way Timeline is played, over here, or the way Chronology is played. (Chronology has similar cards as Timeline, without pictures though, but it’s played the opposite of Timeline where the goal is to gain cards instead of get rid of them, and the first to five cards wins.) I enjoy reading all the text on the cards to learn about different people, places, and events. The cards contain fascinating information, like for example, John Lennon’s real given middle name was “Winston” after Winston Churchill, then he changed it to his wife Yoko’s name. I never knew that! I also didn’t know that the Nintendo company started in 1886 (can you believe that?! It’s true, according to the card in this game. It was started as a playing card company way before it made video games. If you don’t believe me, go search it!) I like that it has history from the last 30 years to help me learn that era. Even though I lived through it, LOL, I’ve been in mom/survival mode so haven’t always known what was going on in the outside world as far as pop culture is concerned. Anyway, it’s a great game, but because of the lack of pictures, I give it 4 out of 5 stars. You could definitely use it in your homeschooling with your 14 and ups, maybe even 12 and up for those younger scholars who feel knowledgeable about history.

Want to learn more about using games in homeschooling, aka gameschooling? Go here.

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