Are you looking for a pocket-sized cognitive workout that is travel-friendly? The Lonpos 303, with over 300 puzzles, guarantees that regardless of age, your brain will be challenged.
The Lonpos 303 consists of twelve multi-colored, multi-geometric, connected beads lying on a divot-like rectangular playing tray. These high-contrasting, colorful pieces are housed in a very lightweight black box which doubles as two playing boards and includes two full-color manuals with a total of 256 Rectangle 2-D and 47 Pyramid 3-D challenges.
Lonpos 303's clearly-written instruction booklet presents puzzle problems with illustrations that are a bit small but still quite clear. Your child begins play by placing one or more of his twelve pieces onto the board in specified positions, then uses his remaining pieces to fill in the board. I love how the game slowly but effectively develops children's visual-spatial skills through a series of very logical building steps. As children complete each puzzle, they improve their concentration, analytical skills, memory, fine-motor skills, and more.
The Lonpos 303 is self-contained within a compact 3" x 5.5", sturdy, latching plastic case, making it a natural to toss in the car for cross country trips and unexpected delays. Purchasing more than one Lonpos 303 allows children to race each other to the solutions. Lonpos 303 has won many awards, such as the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Award 2006, Dr. Toy Best Vacation Children's Product, and Creative Child Magazine's Top Toy of the Year Award in the brainteaser games category. Marketed for children eight years old and older, I think that with occasional parental participation, Lonpos 303 could be used with home-taught children as young as three or four. Because of small pieces, it could be a choking hazard for children under three years of age.
The LONPOS 303 Pyramid and Rectangle game is pocket/purse sized making it a perfect game for traveling or for working on while waiting in a doctor's office, etc.
To play a game, choose a puzzle in the puzzle booklet, and place the pieces on the game board in accordance with the illustration. Once you have done that, the challenge is to fit the remaining pieces into the spaces remaining. Sounds easy? The first few problems really are, but as you work through the more difficult problems you will find some to be excruciatingly hard. By this time you are probably addicted and will not want to put the game away until you have solved the problem!
While the recommended age level is for 8 year olds and up (ALL age groups love these games – several hundred were purchased as goody-bag gifts at an international conference of rocket scientists, who were enthralled), even children as young as four enjoy doing the easier problems under adult supervision.
