Ah, The Nutcracker. Is there any other music that SO tells us it's the holiday season? You know from the first beats of the Sugar Plum Fairy, that the 'magical' time is upon us! I'm glad Kiddo has picked this up and greatly enjoys the ballet every year!
So I'm very happy to be able to bring a new holiday game to you today!
The Nutcracker Music Game is a magical adventure that celebrates music by challenging kids through interactive participation and exciting game play. The premise of the program is to save the Nutcracker by earning nine golden keys through a series of musical games and activities, that teach students about differences between sounds, exercises their memory skills, and increases their music vocabulary. As we all know, musical appreciation and theory helps kids do better in math skills, so anytime we can use music to teach Kiddo, we do!
I was quite amazed at how well Kiddo with the game- she intuitively understood the basics of getting around at the start of the game, and quickly decided which of the games she preferred. I was surprised that these included The Orchestra Game, where you guess which instrument is playing- she did better than I did (and I had over a decade of music lessons!) and The Nuthouse Game, where you have to find the correct matching tune.
Also easy for her were the Find Me on the Tree Game, where you find the matching tree ornament by music, and the Music Cards Matching game- Kiddo excels at matching games, so neither was a surprise. We played the Nutcracker Trivia game together- I was quite happy to see how much she had picked up from watching the ballet and different kids cartoons!
The Nutcracker Game is where you guess the 4 instruments playing a piece of music. The Children's Album Game is similar. Kiddo did pretty well on the initial puzzles, but had a hard time getting from one puzzle to another in both of them, to get the key. She also did really well in the Finky Monkey Game, where you repeat a song that is played on the vibraphone.
The Flying Instruments Game as a little hard, as you have to use right and left arrows to move your instruments and she is more used to using a mouse and spacebar for games.
An added bonus are the Nutcracker Musical Encyclopedia which tells you about all the musical instruments, and lets you play each one, and the Listening Room, where you can enjoy all the pieces from The Nutcracker! There is also a biography of Tchaikovsky, a history of the ballet and a reading of the Tale- all prefect for book reports!
Kiddo had a blast playing the different games and amassed 5 keys pretty quickly. My only issue was that we never did figure out what happens when you get all 9 keys, and there is no key tally on the main screen to tell you how close you are/what games you need to complete. Once you get into each game section, it will show you your tally for that game.it's a minor complaint, as the rest of the game works well and is easy to use.
The Nutcracker Music Game has won several awards, including the Parenting Seal of Approval, the NAPPA Gold Award, and the Parent's Choice Gold Award.
Special Savings:
For a limited time, you can purchase The Nutcracker Music Game for 40% off at the artmusicgames website. Just click on the link, and you will get the discounted price.
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Disclosure / Disclaimer: I was sent this game, free of charge, for review purposes, from , via Tomoson.com. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it.
I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.
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