Labyrinth

Players: 2-4
Ages: 6 and up
Purchase:  Buy on Amazon (affiliate link)
Math Ideas: visualization, logical deduction
Questions to Ask: 
   What ways could you get to the prize?
   Can you find a different way to shift the pieces?

Did you know that my local library has a board game collection where they let you check out board games for free?

NEITHER DID I!

How is that possible? Well, it turns out the Hoover Library is just about the coolest place ever. I asked the woman who runs the board game collection, and apparently there are only a couple of libraries in the entire state of Alabama that loan games. I'm just lucky enough to live 15 minutes away from one.

I took my son there a few weeks ago, and I noticed a game that I hadn't seen since I was his age. We immediately grabbed it and had a fantastic time playing. 

The game is called Labyrinth.

How to Play

Labyrinth, as the retro art can attest, is a classic board game. 

The game comes with a board where a bunch of square tiles have been affixed to the board. The remaining square tiles are meant to be placed randomly on the rest of the board. When you've set up to game, the board will look like an impossible maze.

The goal of the game is to draw a card and maneuver your piece to find the matching treasure. But like I said, the maze is impossible! So how do get where you need to go?

Well, the game comes with one extra tile. On your turn, you slide that extra tile onto the board, pushing the other tiles in that row until one slides off the other side. When you do so, new paths are opened, but others are closed off! So you have to be strategic about where you place your tiles.

Then you take the tile that slid off the board, hand it to your opponent, and they add it in a new location somewhere on the board. 

The constantly shifting board turns out to be a wonderfully novel game mechanic. Since each game is set up randomly, you never play the same game twice! The game can be played with 2, 3, or 4 players. I recommend 4 if possible, since the maze changes more between your turns. This makes the game more challenging, but also more fun.

Where's the Math?

Labyrinth is a fantastic game to explore my favorite domain of math: Spatial reasoning and visualization!

I know you think I'm going to stop talking about this someday, but I am not. Just last week, I read a blog post from Mark Chubb about a study where 8th graders who spent 20 hours doing spatial reasoning tasks improved their performance on subsequent math tests, including number/operations problems and algebra problems! The evidence of spatial reasoning's importance just continues to grow and grow.

Just like Tipsy or Dr. Eureka, Labyrinth requires that you predict what will happen to the game board before you slide in your extra tile. Once you slide in the piece, you can't take back your move. If you accidentally broke up a path you intended to use, too bad! Better spend a little more time visualizing your move next round.

There is no luck in the game, per se, but the game feels so chaotic and random that you spend every turn trying to imagine how you'll achieve your goal. Your opponents, who don't know which treasure you're aiming for, can play offensively or defensively. They can try to go for their own treasures, or they can try to strand you on an island. If they're very strategic, they can do both at the same time!

That's why this game is so engaging from a mathematical perspective: you can't help but mentally map out your next move after every person's turn. The game just draws your attention in a way that few other games do.

Questions to Ask

Younger kids might need some help making their moves. I suggest playing face-up or even cooperatively for the first few games.

While you're playing, you can ask your kids a sequence of questions that will give them a sense of the decision-making process that they'll need to use in the game.

Start by asking "Where are you trying to get to on the board?" Once they've shown you their goal, ask "What is stopping you from getting there?"

When you ask them to describe the obstacles, their thinking about the game will become more clear. Maybe they'll say something like "This part of the path doesn't connect to that part." This sentence, although it doesn't sound like formal math language, is much more precise than "I'm blocked." Your child is working on their spatial vocabulary and beginning to pay attention to specific parts of the game board.

A great follow-up question is "What piece do you wish you could slide over?" You can even play some practice rounds, where you try several sliding options to see what happens. Over time, your kids will start to notice that adjacent tiles are worth paying attention to.

"Maybe you can't cross the board now, but if I just slide that one piece over, I can!"

If your kid just wants to play with the pieces, have at it! A great prompt is "Can you place the tiles on the board so that the whole board is connected to each other somehow?" My son and I had a blast trying to solve that puzzle.

In any case, check out labyrinth. And ask your local library whether they've heard about lending board games! It's an absolute treat that more libraries should take part in.

Click here to buy Labyrinth on Amazon (affiliate link)