Play is a wonderful way for children to learn, and Panjango creates games which incorporate learning about ‘real world’ work within a game environment.
It’s a common worry for both teachers and parents that children spend too much time in front of screens.
Panjango games are traditional hands-on games for real physical and social interaction.
There are three games in the range:
The Panjango Game, Panjango Trumps, and Panjango Trumps: Future Jobs.
I reviewed Panjango Trumps, a Top Trumps-style card game here.
Now Panjango has kindly sent me their board game, The Panjango Game, to try out and play with my family, Big C and Little C (age 8).
The game itself is challenge-based, with the objective being to complete challenges and collect cards to win. It’s suitable for age 8 and up.
The game board has a spinner, with sections for each challenge type, plus spaces for the cards.
There is also a sand timer, as some challenges are timed.
The instructions definitely require a little close reading. While the general principles are easy enough to grasp, there are some variations which can catch you by surprise.
There are four separate categories of challenge cards: Question, Action, Team Play, and All Play.
Each card contains a challenge.
Question and Action are relatively self explanatory.
Some of the Questions are multiple choice. Others, as above, have several possible answers, and other players have some flexibility to decide if the answer given is sufficient.
The Actions are rather like charades.
Sometimes there is the option to use words as well as actions, others must just be mimed. Some of them are also time limited, which is where the little sand timer comes in.
The last two categories are quite interesting. All players are involved, and cooperation is required.
In the Team Play the other players must contribute towards the main player winning the card.
Now, you may think this is a great opportunity for sabotage, but the instructions state that players who do not make an effort are penalized.
No chance to deliberately cheat another player out of a card!
All Play again involves all players, and anyone could be the one to lose out on a card.
There is one more option for the spinner, Free Play. As you might guess, the player making the spin gets to choose the category.
So, what is it like to play?
The instructions consider the possibility of making allowances for younger players.
We did have to allow some flexibility as we were playing with a child right at the lower end of the age range for this game.
For example, there were several occasions when Little C didn’t understand the jobs listed, or couldn’t figure out what they might need. This was easily dealt with by just picking another card.
We explained some of the trickier things, but we also didn’t want to interrupt the flow of the game too much.
On the other hand, I was amazed to discover that Big C didn’t know what ‘perm’ was short for (in a question about hairdressers) so both he and Little C learned something there! (I knew already, I said smugly.)
We also didn’t worry too much about using the timer.
When we played the game, our favoured choices for Free Play were Question and Action. We all found it extremely funny, as well as remarkably challenging, to act or mime various tasks of different jobs.
I personally liked the Question cards best, because I like question and answer games.
Another thing we particularly enjoyed were Story Chains from the Team Play cards. You are given the start of a sentence, and then one player at a time adds a word to create a story with an exciting conclusion. This rather reminded me of playing Cheddar Gorge (from I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue) and was great fun!
For the first time playing, as with any game, it takes a little while to get into the swing of things. You need to get used to the instructions and properly understand what you have to do for each category. But as time went on it all went much more smoothly.
The goal of winning and losing cards is remarkably exciting.
The winning number of cards to aim for to win is ten for 2 – 4 players, and six cards for more players.
It got rather tense near the end when Big and Little C were neck and neck with nine cards each, but Big C just managed to sneak in over the line with a final question to win.
All three of us definitely found it challenging, but remarkably entertaining. Including physical activity in the Action challenges is a definite bonus, and it also keeps the mood light.
The game is designed to be used at school or at home. I think it definitely needs adult participation of some kind, not least to make judgments about what players may or may not be capable of.
There is one optional extra part of the game, called Consequence Cards. These are randomly scattered through all the card sets.
If you draw a consequence card, you spin to determine which player the card applies to, then spin again to determine whether they get a positive or a negative consequence, as read out from the card.
None of us really understood the aim of these cards. I can imagine in an educational setting they would be useful for exploring conversations about choices in life, but in the home context we didn’t think they worked so well.
As they are not a compulsory part of the game we were quite happy to leave them out.
There are an impressive number of cards in each set, and they can be used for many other game variations.
The instruction book includes no fewer than ten mini games that can be played with the cards.
These include role playing scenarios, drawing rather than acting, and creative writing. These are probably more suited to the classroom than the home, though I think the drawing game would be fun for older children, or even adults.
Also in the book is an extensive list of jobs, with impressively detailed information about each one including skills, purpose, and place of work.
This is useful information to be shared as an additional teaching tool, as well as to assist in game play.
Conclusions.
As a family game, it is a lot of fun. Both children and adults will find it quite demanding, and the variety of tasks keeps interest high.
Big C and I were both surprised how hard we both had to work at some of the challenges, and how much we had to think creatively.
I’m not a teacher, but I can imagine this to be a fantastic teaching tool, both for learning and creativity.
While it might be a little tricky for a younger year group, Panjango Trumps is perfect for the lower age range.
I think senior school children would get a great deal out of this in the school environment.
It encourages children to think about what all kinds of different jobs involve, especially those with which they may not be familiar.
In addition, the games encourage teamwork and communication. While the game is competitive, with the aim to win, players must also work together to help each other out.
They have to engage critical thinking and solve problems, skills which are essential in all walks of life.
On a purely visual level, the cartoon characters that represent each job are colorful and abstract, without stereotypes of any kind.
Panjango is a unique approach to introducing a world in which every child will eventually move, the world of work and adulthood.
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Thanks for reading!
Pin the image below to save for later. Read the Panjango Trumps review here.
You can also read more parent-related stuff here.
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