Building Spatial Logic Skills with Apple Twist
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Children love thinking skills puzzles and Apple Twist is no different! Here’s what we thought of this hands-on game board.
Apple Twist is a compact puzzle game for 1 player, and is recommended for ages 5 and up.
A special thanks to Timberdoodle Co. for graciously sending us a complimentary copy of Apple Twist in exchange for our honest review.
Apple Twist Game Overview
Apple Twist promotes thinking skills by challenging spatial insight, logic, problem-solving, planning, and visual perception. Players will practice their “flexible thinking skills” in a hands-on, kinesthetic way.
Like most SmartGames, Apple Twist features an “easy to expert” challenge layout that begins at the youngest age ability and grows with your child (or you for that matter!).
Apple Twist is a recent release and offers a new “twist” with a 180-degree rotating game board and posable 3-D caterpillar game pieces.
The gameboard is manipulated as directed in the challenge booklet based on the selected level of difficulty: starter, junior, expert, or master. There are 60 challenges between the levels. The three caterpillars are bendable in different ways and placed in various configurations on the gameboard dimples.
Playing Apple Twist
To play Apple Twist, the player selects a challenge number and sets up the gameboard as directed in the booklet. Depending on the chosen challenge, there may be clues about caterpillar placement.
Starter challenges offer clues about the desired position for each color caterpillar, but as you progress, there are fewer and fewer clues. When a caterpillar head is shown in the picture, it indicates that the head of a caterpillar must be in that space. If it’s white and not colored, the player must figure out which color is supposed to fill that space.
By junior, the color clues disappear, leaving the player to problem solve and try out various options before discovering the correct placement. In expert and master, there may only be one clue for head placement or even none at all. This is very tricky!
Solutions for each puzzle are listed in the back of the booklet.
What We Thought
Both my Kindergarten daughter and I were excited to try out Apple Twist. We are huge fans of hands-on games, and I love the progressive challenges SmartGames offers.
The first four Starter challenges offer extra clues about the entire placement of one color caterpillar, as well as the head position of the other two colors. This was very helpful for my daughter and she quickly picked up how to solve the puzzle.
However, as we moved on, she struggled a little as fewer clues were offered. She still did pretty well with the Starter clues that show the head placement of each color, but once we got to Junior where some of the head clues turn white, she wasn’t sure what to do. I had to work with her and show her that she would have to try out different pieces and it would take longer to solve the puzzle.
Just for fun, we also tried an Expert and Master puzzle together, and I’ll admit one of them even had me stumped for a while. It takes concentration and tenacity to keep trying new configurations. While this is a logic puzzle, I think that it also teaches patience and perseverance.
It takes some time to work with each caterpillar and get used to how they bend and fit differently. There are so many possible configurations, but as you practice, you get a feel for it. Young children will likely need some help in getting started with the challenges, but as they practice, they will be able to grasp how to do it on their own.
This is a game that even I want to sit down and play with!
Final Thoughts
We are enjoying the challenge of Apple Twist and love the cute and compact pieces. A great game to take on the go, I see this being a favorite for years to come!
Apple Twist is available individually from Timberdoodle Co, and is also featured as part of the Kindergarten Curriculum kit.
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Such a fun game! Thanks for sharing!