Top Toys for Christmas 2011: ThinkFun Rush Hour

ThinkFun Rush Hour, the 1999 Parents’ Choice recommended toy, is an exceptional educational toy that takes a real life situation and creates a logic puzzle with it. As you watch your children play and solve some of the complex puzzles you’ll soon realize how this toy has superb educational value as it helps a child with planning and thinking as they try and free the red car from gridlock.

Your child (or children) becomes the Rush Hour traffic cop and the objective is simply to get the red car off the road. Picking on of the 40 challenge cards, your child sets the six inch square road grid up with buses and cars and then can move the vehicles on by one until the red car can get out of the jam.

This game teaches the child many thing: how to follow instructions, rudimentary traffic laws and the use of logic in planning moves in advance. It is easy to play and has four levels of difficulty. It is fun and yet challenges the brain making it an ideal toy.

While the game only comes with 40 cards, you can also buy additional sets of cards so your child will never get bored! The game itself is well made, being very durable and also packs away quickly and easily. Setup does take a minute or two, but some of the problems are difficult and can take quite a while to finish - every card does show the solution on the back!

ThinkFun Rush Hour is a great game for Christmas 2011.

With the challenge and the possibility of choking the game is suitable for 8+ years old.

What comes with the game:

• Four levels of play, beginner to expert
• Forty cards with solutions
• Sixteen cars and trucks, one red car
• One traffic grid game board
• One game-go storage bag