Crew Review: The Presidential Game #hsreviews #grow4christ

by ohiosarah on September 24, 2013

We’ve been studying American history this year in our home school and so when the chance to review a game that adds fun to our studies came about I was all over that. The Presidential Game is for ages 11 years and up and even if you’re playing just for fun or to add to your history or government studies this is one game that the whole family can enjoy. The game comes with a 20” by 30” game board, 1 score pad, 3 blue dice, 3 red dice, 80 politics cards, 40 write-your-own politics cards, 150 Republican chips (red), 150 Democrat chips (blue) and 1 electoral webmap calculator access code. The game sells for $35.00 and you can also purchase the game hat in either Republican (red), Democrat (blue) and white for Independent for $24.95.

We teamed up with my hubby helping to guide us while playing, my oldest and my son played on one team while my middle daughter and I played on another. We found out quickly that you run out of chips, but can easily win the game if you only campaign and not do any fundraising – of course that isn’t how real Presidential races work but it was a fun game to play. I will say the 7 year old and almost 9 year old did lose interest fast so we encouraged them to help put the chips where we told them as well as had them rolling the dice during our turns which helped them stay in the game. There were quite a bit of directions in how to play the game so that is why my husband was the one helping us in understanding how to play the game.

All three children getting the layout of the game.

It doesn’t matter if you align with Republicans, Democrats or as an Independent or as none of the above – the game is fun and full of strategy and does help players understand a bit more what goes into campaigning and fundraising. The WebMap calculator adds a bit of technology to the game, there will be a code so you can access the calculator for free while you are playing the game. You can track which states each party wins as well as track how long your race to be President is going – 1 hour of play equates to about 30 weeks of campaigning/fundraising. I tried to use the WebMap on my iPod touch and it wouldn’t stay open, so our next time we play since I have a laptop now we’ll be accessing it on the laptop to make it easier to keep track of which party has won which state.

My oldest trying to decide how to disburse her team’s chips.

It is definitely a fun and unique way for children and adults to learn a little about what it takes to run for the chief of America. I look forward to many more nights playing this with the children and maybe getting together with friends to play with as well – it can be great fun to get together and play games and maybe even make some patriotic snacks to go along with the game playing. If you’d like to see what other homeschoolers had to say about The Presidential Game visit the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.