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>>>COUPON CODE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE REVIEW<<<
If you homeschool your teens and tweens, you don’t want to ignore this post. If you are a gaming, Bible-loving family, this game needs to be on the SHORT LIST for Christmas this year.
If you homeschool your teens and tweens, you don’t want to ignore this post. If you are a gaming, Bible-loving family, this game needs to be on the SHORT LIST for Christmas this year.
I was gifted the game Portals and Prophets from Harmon Games for my honest review- but honestly, I was willing to buy it (don’t tell them that ;). It’s THAT amazing. And if you homeschool and are looking for a way to bring Biblical history and geography to life, you’ve found it. I also love that this game was created by a homeschool grad!
The concept behind P&P is pretty straightforward: throughout the gameplay, you are traveling forward in time, moving through various Biblical events and their corresponding geographic locations until you finish up in New Testament times. A word of caution is that while the concept is very simple, the gameplay is not as much. It’s very much a strategy game with several moving parts to consider at all times. I absolutely love it for this reason, as does my 14 year old. However, after she and I played through it the first time, I realized that my dyslexic 12 year old would NOT be a fan. There’s too much to keep in mind at once. So while I highly recommend it for teens and tweens that have good attention skills, I wouldn’t suggest it for younger ages. (The recommended age is 10+)
Disclaimer: I was provided with a free product in return for my honest review. I was not financially compensated for this post. All thoughts and opinions expressed herein are my own and not influenced by the developing company and/or its affiliates in any way.
Here’s a snippet of the story: “The year is 2200. The Alpha and Omega time travel company is looking got hire a tour guide and you are on the short list. Prove you have the experience needed to lead future time traveling expeditions by getting to the right place at the right time in history to witness events.”
Each round consists of three potential actions: draw a card, move a geography pawn, or play a card (which is how you earn points). Each round results in moving forward in the timeline to a new century. There are certain special caveats like “fuel” that can widen the range of time that you’re allowed to function in, but essentially, you can play a card (earning a point) when the card represents the proper time in history AND the geographic location that you are in on the board. Each card has a certain point value, and there are additional potential points with a variety of “bonus” cards included. The game ends when one player plays a third New Testament Card. The player with the most points wins.
Here’s what I loved:
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While the gameplay isn’t for young kids, once you play a few times, it flows much more smoothly for those of us who are slower to catch on. Ahem..
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I feel like it’s basically Catan meets Scripture. Since we LOVE Catan, it was a perfect fit for our family.
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As an eclectic-Classical homeschool family, we are big fans of knowing our timeline and geography. Both my daughter and I felt that it did a phenomenal job of bringing our studies to life. It gave us the full perspective of how these events connect and interrelate over time.
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It also helped deepen Biblical understanding by cementing the sequences of popular Bible stories AND helping us understand the geographical challenges.
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It’s not an eternal game. It took us just under an hour to play the first time and less the second once we had the hang of it.
I’m being honest- I don’t have many complaints except what I mentioned above:
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It is slow to get into because you have so much to consider. However, the second time around, we jumped right in!
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In our home, it’s meant for teens and older. I REALLY wanted my tween to be able to play. She isn’t inclined to like history or geography and I was hoping this would help some information click or become more interesting. But she just cant hang. Maybe in a few years…
IF this sounds as awesome to you as it did to me, you can purchase it now as a great Christmas gift for 30% off!
1. CLICK HERE to shop on Amazon for Portals & Prophets.
2. Add to cart.
3. At checkout, enter HOMESCHOOL30 in the “Payment Method” area under “Gift Card or Promotional Code.”
4. Click APPLY.
5. Your total should reduce by $11.99.
6. Item qualifies for FREE shipping with Amazon Prime!
***Coupon Code expires on 11/23/18 at midnight!
1. CLICK HERE to shop on Amazon for Portals & Prophets.
2. Add to cart.
3. At checkout, enter HOMESCHOOL30 in the “Payment Method” area under “Gift Card or Promotional Code.”
4. Click APPLY.
5. Your total should reduce by $11.99.
6. Item qualifies for FREE shipping with Amazon Prime!
***Coupon Code expires on 11/23/18 at midnight!
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Erin is a joy-chasing homeschool mama to 4 babies, ages 16 down to 3. She married her grade-school sweetheart 18 years ago, and lives to love him well. Her abiding love for Jesus Christ, and her heart to encourage other women toward him dictates her days. Erin has authored 3 complete homeschool programs which were voted the #1 Preschool Program and #2 All-in-One Program by readers at Homeschool.com. She is also a contributing author for HSLDA. Learn more about her programs at GentleClassical.com and LifeAbundantlyblog.com
