Flea Circus (review and discount code)

Games! We love to use games to work on relationship building and social experiences in autism intervention at our house. Games that sneak in some academics are a bonus.

Flea Circus from RnR Games is a game for 2-6 players ages 6 and up.

Packaged in a box that reminds me of animal crackers, Flea Circus is priced at $15.95. The game comes with a deck of Flea Circus cards and one set of dog tokens and one set of cat tokens.

The concept of the game is pretty simple: Cats are worth 1 point; dogs are worth 2 points. The object of the game is to collect more points (with dogs and cats) than any other player.

The cards in the deck tell players what to do, whether to take animals from the center pile or whether to take animals from the piles other players have collected during the game, or whether to put animals back in the middle.

If you're looking for games to play with a child with special needs, Flea Circus offers a variety of opportunities for developmental and academic experiences.

Reading is not necessary; the cards use pictures instead of words.

The rules of the game have players taking or giving animals with different cards, which requires players to pay attention to the rules and to what the cards mean.

There are lots of rich opportunities for attention sharing, attention shifting, gaze following, turn taking here.

The games are relatively short in length. I love the opportunities to stretch attention time by achieving success with short games without having to cut it short without completing the game because it was too long.

Because cats are worth 1 point and dogs are worth 2 points, there is an opportunity to practice simple math within the game.

Flea Circus provides the background for fun, for relationship building, for social practice in a game where younger children or children with developmental delays can play with older kids. I like that it can be played with two people or six people (not every family is a family of four).

This is a game I will consider on days when my 'Rella has a cold or is having an 'off' day. I need games and activities where she can experience competence on 'off' days, and this one will work well for that purpose.

And it will be a game I consider on days when we plan a picnic on a blanket on the ground or some other event (outdoor concert, outdoor play, sib's baseball game) where we might be on a blanket and need to pass time in a fun way. Flea Circus is compact enough to take along for events like that.

Variations: We have enough little animal figures from play sets that I think we could add some of our own for more points and increase the math practice of the game.
WARNING – Small parts choking hazard, not for children under 3 years old or chewers.

We like this game; it is simple without being too babyish, and provides a background activity for a lot of relationship / social experience. Thumbs up from my house. ;)

RnR is offering 20% off through 2011 with the code CREW20. ;)

To read my Crewmates' reviews of Flea Circus or another RnR game, Pig Pile, go here.

RnR games sent me Flea Circus for review purposes as part of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine's Homeschool Crew of reviewers. I get to keep the game. I received no compensation for the review and am not obligated to provide a positive review.