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I love I Spy books. I always have. What fun to look for miscellaneous little things in busy pictures! As it turns out, my little girls are big fans, too.
What makes the game I Spy Eagle Eye even more fun than a regular I Spy book, though, is the little ding-bell that you get to ring when you spot something. The game comes with four two-sided playing boards, a stack of 30 double-sided cards, and the bell. The structure of the game is flexible enough to play by just about any rules you might want, but the suggested basic method for two players is to deal a card to both players, who turn the cards over simultaneously. The first player to find an item from the card on her playing board dings the little bell and shouts the item name. She gets to keep her card, and the other player puts hers back on the bottom of the deck. Another round is dealt, and the game is played until one player has the predetermined number of “winning” cards—it was suggested to play to six, but we played to three cards with the younger players.
The game’s suggested age is five and up, though I played it with kids as young as four. There are suggested rules for playing with just two players, three or four players, and tournament play—with fun variations. For example, you can ding the bell if you don’t find anything and then switch game boards, or you can allow players to use both sides of the board. I think this game will continue to be fun for a long time—because as the girls become more familiar with the boards and the cards and the items on them, they’ll just get quicker on the bell.
I Spy Eagle Eye is good for memory and matching exercises as well as just plain boredom relief. Mom gives it an enthusiastic thumb’s up.
