TENZI FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY

I’m just going to be honest. Playing games is hard for my family. We are all highly competitive and somebody usually has to lose, which leaves at least one person in hysterics 14 minutes into the game. Sounds fun, right?

So when Timberdoodle asked me to review the famous dice game, Tenzi, for them, I was hesitant. I was intimidated by the piles of dice and small packaging, obviously meaning it was devoid of instructions. And I knew our family game history and the future didn’t look too bright.

But I said yes. And to my amazement, we played it and no one cried!

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Tenzi for the Whole Family

I was surprised when I opened the package how there really were instructions on how to play this game in that tiny package. I was also surprised to find that there wasn’t just one way to play…there were actually TONS of ways to play, which meant that our whole family could play a game together! It was so fast-paced that no one seemed to notice if they were not winning. Plus is was so fun that the didn’t seem do care anyway.

 

Ways to plan Tenzi

Here’s some easy ways you can play the game of Tenzi. These are my favorites because my three big kids can play together, no problem.

• Original Tenzi: each kid chooses a color of dice they want. Someone says GO and you start shaking your dice onto the table and gathering a certain number. So if you were to shake out three 3’s on your first roll, you’d slide those 3’s off the the side and keep rolling as quick as you can. The first person to get all their number (in this case, 3’s) wins and says TENZI!
• If getting all 10 of your dice to a certain number is too big of a goal for little kids, just use five dice.
• Target Tenzi: All players declare what number they’re going for before you start.
• Play in teams. Grab 20 dice and play the same way, just as a team.

There’s about a million ways to play this and you can find out all the ways with this set of cards, Tenzi Card Deck, which I have found really useful when we want to find a simple game to play.

What this mom loves about Tenzi

1. My whole family can play it (except my toddler, but you get what I mean.)
2. It’s fast-moving, which means you can get a whole bunch of rounds in–FAST!
3. For the original way to play, it’s not necessarily a strategy game, it’s so much luck of the draw, which makes it an equal playing field.
4. It’s tiny. It literally takes up no space in my cabinet.
5. You can pack it along really easily for trips or camping or in your purse. This game is going to be handy while we’re waiting for certain kids to finish with their activities this school year.
6. It’s versatile and there’s a million and one ways to play. 

This game is part of Timberdoodle’s 2nd grade curriculum and is a big hit in our family!