I'm always on the lookout for brain games. Challenging tasks are so beneficial to brain development. I love to see my children struggle just a bit outside of their comfort zone, really applying themselves, and then watch the excitement when they catch on to something new. Funnybone Toys develops exactly that type of game. Anaxi is one of four new Funnybone Toys games released this year.

Anaxi is a fairly portable game that comes in a small box. It consists of 75 word cards (25 each of three different colors), two base cards (one to play and a spare), player answer pad of about 50 sheets, complete instructions, and a one minute timer. Even though the game uses colors to separate the three sets, they've thought to also use solid, dotted, and dashed underlines for those who cannot differentiate color.

A round of Anaxi is played by drawing three word cards (these adjectives are called qualities in the game) and placing them on the base card, matching the colors of the words in play to the coordinating segment on the base card. Each player has an answer sheet to record any person, place, or thing they can think of which bears those qualities. All players work simultaneously to write down the highest number of unique answers.

The base card is a Venn Diagram showing the connections for three circles. Where each circle touches its neighbor, unique answers are worth one point. At the center of the diagram where all three circles overlap, answers are worth three points. Only unique answers receive points. For example, if two players use the word “skunk” under SMELLY and BLACK, neither player receives a point.

Any player can challenge another player's words and there are specific rules for that strategy. I was surprised how much I had to struggle to think of words for some of the connections. Thankfully, there is no penalty for leaving a column blank on the answer pad. Five rounds are played to complete a game. Anaxi is pretty straight forward, but if you get stuck in play, videos are on the website to guide you.

Anaxi is inspired by Greek philosopher Anaximander and British philosophers John Venn and John Locke. I've been inspired myself, to learn more about Anaximander and Locke.

The cards are a bit slippery against each other and they tend to slide out of position when stacked on the base card, but it isn't a difficult game to understand where each card is meant to be.

Anaxi is a fun game for most players and is a great way for homeschoolers to reinforce adjectives and nouns.  Our co-op will be adding this to our games class closet. Award winning Anaxi is for ages 8-99 and for 2-6 players. The price is $21.99.

—Product review by Jodi Galland, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, October, 2016