Games are a staple in our homeschool. They are such a fun way for kids to practice their skills in different subject areas. Boom Goes the Dynamite is no exception. This quick-playing card game from Ok2Win will help your children practice mental math.

The game is $11.99. It comes in a sturdy box that you can easily use for storage when you are not playing. It is small enough to bring along with you when you travel, making it a portable game option. All you need is the box and a table to play on.

Inside the box you will find 60 match cards, 22 ignite cards, two dynamite cards, and a sheet with the rules. Reading the rules can get a little confusing, but there is a short video on the vendor’s website that explains it well. I would recommend watching that before playing.

You will need at least one other person to play. The game can accommodate up to six players. Before they are ready to play successfully, players will need to be able to match numerals easily and have a basic understanding of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. It is recommended for kids ages eight and up, but slightly younger kids may be ready to play.

When it is game time, you can quickly get it set up. You set out nine cards face down, in a three by three grid. Be sure to leave a little space between them so you can easily grab and flip the card you want.

The game begins as a standard matching game. On your turn, you flip two cards and try to make a match. If your cards match, you keep them. Then new cards are added to replace them, and you keep going. If your cards do not match, you could ignite a match with special cards.

These cards let you use math to change the numbers. For instance, if you flip over a five and a three, you can add a plus two ignite card to the three. Now you have a five and a five and the cards match.

When your turn is over, make sure the grid is full again. Then, you draw new ignite cards to replace any that you used. At the end of the game, the player with the most cards wins.

There are also special cards that can change gameplay a bit. The timer card lets you flip over all the cards for ten seconds so you can make as many matches as possible. Then there are my kids’ favorite cards. These are the dynamite cards. If you flip over a dynamite card, you get to remove all the cards that are touching it and add them to your pile.

After watching the video, it only took a few minutes for us to feel like we had the hang of the game. Each round plays very quickly, lasting 10-15 minutes. If more people were playing, it took a bit longer, just because more players had to take turns. We found four to be the ideal number of players.

Having six players took longer since everyone takes a turn. It felt like there were not enough ignite cards to go around with this many. The video on the site recommends passing out only two ignite cards per person when you have a larger group. This helped alleviate the problem a bit, but after being used to having three, it felt like a letdown to get rid of one.

Overall, this game was a fun addition to our homeschool. My kids were always eager to play, and they were able to practice some basic math skills while they did. The cards are thick and sturdy, so they held up well to gameplay, so we will be able to keep playing repeatedly.

If you are looking for a new math game to help make learning fun, I would highly recommend Boom Goes the Dynamite.

-Product review by Lisa Tanner, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, October 2020