Tabletop Tuesday - Math Fluxx

In an effort to alleviate screen time, my kids and I are playing tabletop games. Some are full games with boards some are simple card games. All are fun!

Fluxx Math

Looney Labs 

Ages 8+

Players 2-6

When I was in college, I was having pizza at Sal’s Pizzeria with a bunch of guys who I played in various D&D and Shadowrun games with. When a college classmate of my brother’s takes out this stack of odd black and white cards. 

He explained the basic rules to the game and then mentioned that the rules changed as the game goes on. What? We spent the next hour or so playing while eating what used to be Ridgewood’s worst pizza (it is vastly improved). I was hooked. The next day I head into the city and head to The Compleat Strategist and bought what would be my first (of many) sets of Fluxx. I just loved the game. 

I brought it on camping trips and played it by small gas lights against groups of Scouts and other adult leaders. It became part of the fabric of our troop camping trips. Inevitably I would leave my deck in a pocket of my pants, and when I washed them after I returned there would be a huge mess in the washer or dryer with dozens of ruined cards. So I’d be back to the store for another set. To this day I keep a set in my camping bag. 

I eagerly waited for the day when my kids would be old enough the play. You need to have just enough patience to follow the rules and just enough reading ability to understand your cards. Obviously an adult can comprehend the game way faster, but the kids (9&7) were able to catch on pretty quick. 

Math Fluxx, like most of the other themed versions of the game has the same basic rules. Take one. Play one. But their is a twist. The goals, which are all numbers, can be achieved in many different ways. You can add you keepers, multiply them, or compile them, so it works on many different levels of math learning. 

So are you saying that Math Fluxx is like a math lesson? Not really but it does reinforce and introduce math concepts for young children. 

Fluxx is one of my favorite games, and Andrew Looney of Looney Labs who handed me this game is an absolute genius. He designed a game that is both exceptionally simple and overly complicated at the same time. 

Disclosure: I was given a copy of Fluxx Math to help facilitate this review. Though as always all opinions are my own.