I’ve mentioned before how N is just getting into games and I’m a big fan of anything educational.  When Cartamundi asked me to review a couple of their newly launched Fundels games, I thought it was a great opportunity to broaden N’s game options.  And help enforce his maths at the same time.

Cartamundi are specialists in playing cards and card games, and Fundels have been launched to bring a fun and effective way of learning into the world of card games.  The range brings together colour, language, conceptual thinking and maths into one package to help children learn while having fun.  As well as the standard range of a game pack of cards, there are also the premium sets which come in little sturdy plastic carry cases with dice for added maths fun.  We were sent 2 of the ‘red’ maths games (the others in the range cover language and thinking.

Playing number games with Cartamundi Fundels plus a review - Bubbablue and me

As a child we used to play a lot of card games, mainly taught by our Grandad who then probably regretted teaching my brother and I to win his penny collection off him, and our mum.  So far, N is following in our footsteps with his love of number card games and he straight away wanted to know what was in the little red box.

Fundels playing with numbers premium carry case and cards

The Playing with Numbers box included 100 cards and a dice with symbols on rather than numbers. The dice indicates what action the cards played have to follow. So the highest, lowest, any choice, or miss a turn.  I have to admit it took a bit of reading to understand how to play.  There could have been some examples to make it clearer, but we got there in the end.  Essentially on your turn you roll the dice, then play either 1, 2 or 3 cards to make your best number depending on whether you’re playing in 1s, 10s or 100s, and the other players have to beat your score according to whether you rolled higher or lower.

Cartamundi Fundels playing with numbers game

Different game options are given for different levels of play – so older children might want to play using 100s, while we mostly stuck with just showing 1 card.  N grasped it really quickly, and as with other card games, it’s easy for children to beat adults.  There’s also an alternative game if you want to mix it up.

Once we got the hang of the instructions we were away.  The cards feel nice in your hand – my only complaint is that like so many cards they’re set up for right handers fanning their cards, and lefties have to do it in reverse.  The pictures are bright and colourful, and the numbers are clear to read.  The case is a nice touch because cards get all over the place in our house, so it’s a good way to attempt to keep everything together.

Playing Fundels card games

The other game is Multiplications.  N has only just started doing lots of – he’s fine on his 2s, and getting there on his 10s, but we had a go at the game and quickly came unstuck.  Each card has a multiplication on with the answer on the reverse. Similarly there are various different game suggestions to play, but the gist is about being the first to answer the sum correctly.  I can see us getting this game out when N is learning his times tables in future.

As well as maths games, the other games in the range are perfect for helping consolidate learning and practice their skills without children realising.  They’re easy to take out and about as well, and make a good precursor to proper playing cards.

Fundels were launched in January, and are available to buy from Tesco, and from February will also be stocked in WHSmiths and John Lewis.

I also have a set of the 2 games we reviewed to giveaway to one reader.  Just answer the question in the comments below – tell me what your favourite game is and why (no need to complete the url box) – then enter via the rafflecopter widget.  There are extra bonus entry options.  Please ensure your email is current as this will be the method of contacting the winner.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Terms and conditions

  1. UK entry only, over 18s
  2. Giveaway closes 11.59pm 26th February 2017
  3. Entries will be validated according to the rules of entry
  4. There is 1 prize of 2 Fundels games
  5. The data of anyone that enters won’t be passed on to any third parties or used for any unsolicited marketing communications.
  6. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook or any other social media.
  7. Winner will be randomly chosen, and will be shown on this post, with further notifications may be shared on social media.
  8. Winner will be notified via email, and will need to respond with their postal address within 3 weeks otherwise a further winner will be drawn.
  9. Prize will be sent out within 30 days of receiving postal details via the supplier.
  10. This giveaway may be featured on Loquax, Prizefinder and Superlucky
Family Fever

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Disclosure: We were send the Fundels games for the purpose of review. All words and opinions are my own.

156 Comments

  1. Sharon Beaman

    I like the games from years ago like Snakes and Ladders, Ludo, Draughts and Beetle game, Tiddly Winks. When mine were young they used to love to play Operation and took great joy in touching the sides with the tweezer to make it buzz. The object of the game was to take the parts out without touching and making it buzz! They had more excitement playing it their way.

  2. Monika Bascombe

    I love frustration – not too long and engages all family

  3. lauren porter

    snakes & ladders as it’s a classic and so much fun 🙂

  4. I love Ticket to Ride as its quite strategic and you have to think carefully what routes to attempt and try and get your tracks down before someone else x

  5. Laura Kevlin

    We like Stratego – one of the few games I can beat my husband at!

  6. Stacy Fenemore

    we like uno, its a simple game to play

  7. Julie Scattergood

    Horrible Histories. Great fun and full of fabulous facts.

  8. Scrabble! Always fun to play with family 🙂

  9. Theresa Alison

    Buckaroo , think we’ve had many fun days playing that game and it never grows old a game for all the family.

  10. karen Howden

    we like Twister because it makes us all laugh so much

  11. Rebecca Lis

    Pop up pirate is our favourite at the moment, my daughter thinks its really funny!

  12. We like to play old fashioned Snakes and Ladders as all members of the family can play on an equal footing.

  13. Emma Fox

    Cludo – I enjoy playing Cludo and working out ‘who did it’ 🙂

  14. paula cheadle

    at the moment it’s operation, they like the buzzing

  15. lia sturman

    boggle me and my daughter loved playing it when she was younger

  16. Adrian Bold

    Monopoly as all the family enjoy it and it teaches the kids about money!

  17. Jamie C Millard

    hungry hippos. fast paced action and a lot of fun

  18. Angela Kelly

    We love Scrabble beacause it’s fun and also educational.

  19. Charlotte Hoskins

    I love Articulate as it’s really fast paced and a great team game 🙂

  20. gemma middleton

    We have always been Monopoly fans in our house! Thanks for the fabulous chance.

  21. Victoria B

    Frustration because it reminds me of Christmas round my Gran’s and it’s a simple game but really entertaining.

  22. Ursula Hunt

    My granddaughter loves Operation at the minute

  23. steph lovatt

    We love snakes and ladders, it’s anyones game

  24. A.E. ADKINS

    I love Scattergories or Boggle because I usually win but the boys prefer Pie Face – or of course their electronic games

  25. Andrew Hindley

    Pie Face a simple game but oh so much fun!

  26. maria dhillon

    monopoly is fun but gets competitive lol

  27. faye williams

    I always loved playing old maid or snap with my late grandparents when I was young, now however I spend my evenings playing top trumps or Pokemon with my children 🙂

  28. hannah oneill

    Carcassone because its a fantastic game!

  29. I love matching pairs and lotto style games. It means that we can play as a family, regardless of different ages/abilities

  30. Emma Whittaker

    My daughters favorite at the moment is Pig Goes Pop that she got for christmas 🙂

  31. Rebecca Howells (@PeanutHog)

    Scrabble – it makes me use my brain!

  32. Kimberley Ryan

    we have lots of favourites, but my personal favourite to play with my little ones is Hungry Hippos, its just chaos 🙂

  33. Sadiyya maryam

    Monopoly as it has always been a family favourite and gets us all playing.

  34. Victoria Prince

    I love Trivial Pursuit because I am a massive quiz fan and there are so many different variants there are suitable versions for everyone

  35. Linda Ford

    We love monopoly, junior, classic and electronic. We have real fun playing together.

  36. Anthea Holloway

    Our family love Sorry! because all the family can play it and enjoy it and it is such fun.

  37. Emma Louise Elliott

    I love monopoly as it’s a great game to play with family and friends xxx

  38. Lynsey Buchanan

    I like Scrabble as it challenges the mind

  39. Georgina Prince

    i love crib because i used to play it with my mum and dad x

  40. Lara Latchem

    Game of life as always loved it as a kid

  41. Kat Lucas

    Love Monopoly as it’s still a fun game to play with the family

  42. We like old maid, good old fashioned fun and hilarious when the kids aren’t trying their best not to be the old maid lol

  43. Dale Dow

    Pie Face showdown, always guarantees some giggles

  44. i personally love Monopoly, my brother used to play it with me when we were younger and he was always the banker which made me use my maths a lot as I’d have to keep a check on him making sure he wasnt cheating!

  45. sheri Darby

    We love playing UNO because it is such fun

  46. Joanna Kasznicki

    Jenga great game for all the family

  47. sharon stanley

    we love Jenga in our house. as our children are between the ages of 6 and 14 it’s something that everyone can play.

  48. JULIE WARD

    We love snakes and ladders, its a hit with the younger grandchildren

  49. Samantha O'D

    I really like scrabble, gets the brain working

  50. I like playing Operation as it reminds me of playing with my cousins as a child.

  51. Sam Rhodes

    Cluedo! I love how competitive everyone gets!

  52. we love playing scrabble and snap as family

  53. Jo Carroll

    I used to play a lot of Top Trumps with my brothers when I was a girl. I’m surprised they haven’t released similar versions for very young children.

  54. michelle speight

    logo game we can have fun with a lot or a few

  55. Christina Palmer

    My Grandson loves to play snakes and ladders when he comes to visit.We both find it fun although he usually wins

  56. Oh I have really fond memories of playing card games with my grandparents too!
    These look great, anything which encourages number play is a good thing in my book!
    Thanks for sharing your review on #TriedTested this week x

  57. Playing games is a great way to learn maths and these games look great, really colourful. I love the little box to carry them in too 🙂

    #TriedTested

  58. Spencer Broadley

    We love Scrabble – it helps with spelling and knowledge of words while having fun trying to score points, so maths as well

  59. Sarah Ann

    Monopoly – especially if I’m the banker!

  60. Monopoly because it’s a family friendly game.

  61. Michelle Ferguson

    I love trivial pursuit as my hubby gets so stroppy when he loses

  62. claire woods

    Scrabble as you have to think about how words are spelt.

  63. lorraine polley

    my grandson loves og on the bog, i have no idea why!! must just be the farting noises

  64. claire griffiths

    monopoly as we can play it as a family

  65. jo liddement

    I love playing King of Tokyo with my son as you play the parts of monsters and robots and have to compete with each other to become the king and win.

  66. I love connect four because I always win lol but love Jenga too.

  67. Kirsty Sparks

    Clydogau because it is fun 🙂

    • Kirsty Sparks

      Oops lol weirdest predictive text ever! Meant Cluedo

  68. Jules page

    Snap because it’s easy understandable to play with my 3 year old.

  69. Tracy Newton

    We love the Orchard Farm range of games. They are educational, fun to play, innovative and quick to play.

  70. Ruth Harwood

    We love cluedo because it makes us think and we have to rely on memory and perception xx

  71. Christine Lockley

    We’re loving “Bananagrams”, its like scrabble for kids without the board, can be educational and lots of fun

  72. ADEINNE TONNER

    My favourite game personally has to be scrabble as i find it can be challenging at times especially if you get lots of terrible letters

  73. sarah rees

    at the moment im back into playing boggle. good fun!

  74. Susan Smith

    Monopoly is our favourite, great fun game

  75. Lisa Wilkinson

    I like to play Scrabble. It’s always a fun game

  76. at the moment we are enjoying Trivia Pursuit my 8 year old is learning so much from it.

  77. Alice Dixon

    Monopoly because it’s a classic everyone wants to join in with

  78. Catherine McAlinden

    Monopoly, because we can all play it together

  79. Matt McAndrew

    Probably the Game of Life because of its variables.

  80. Helen Moulden

    Ours is Labyrinth because mazes are fun!

  81. Phase 10. It’s a card game that’s a fun variation of Rummy. If you haven’t played it, I highly recommend it.

  82. Patricia Avery

    I love 20 Questions because its a game everybody can join in with 🙂

  83. Julie Henderson

    game of life as we always name the kids we have

  84. Sarah Rees

    Kids love Guess who – Nice and easy to understand and lots of fun

  85. Corinne Henson

    I love Pictionary because it can be really funny

  86. Karen Barrett

    Articulate, such a good, fun family game

  87. Rosalind Blight

    We love monopoly it seems to be teaching my children good negotiation skills

  88. Joanna Ford

    I love Monopoly as it is different every time and I love the fact that it goes on for a long time!

  89. Carly Belsey

    We love Monopoly, it teaches children how to use money

  90. Anthony Harrington

    we are enjoying Frustration at the moment

  91. Kay Sherman

    I really like the game of life all my kids can play together

  92. jessica woods

    We love snap and memory game 🙂

  93. Hannah Scudder

    Monopoly, have some great memories of playing it every sunday with my dad and still love it now.

    • Laura Pritchard

      Forgot the ‘why’ !! Because my dad used to be the ‘Grand High Wizard’ in it and really got into character, which we loved!

  94. Elizabeth Hinds

    I love Monopoly 🙂 Only if I win though!

  95. Alexandra Farmer

    My favourite game is Scrabble because it improves your vocabulary

  96. Rachel Craig

    Snap, can be fun and played with various age groups.

  97. Clare Hubbard

    Chess, great to use my head once in a while!

  98. Kim Neville

    I like Cluedo but my son loves any memory game as so good at them

  99. lynn heath

    My daughter got Monopoly Junior for Christmas and it has been so much fun playing with them – I think we might upgrade to full game soon!

  100. Tracy Nixon

    I love Scrabble as all the kids can join in!

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