Extraordinaires Design Studio

The imagination of a child is absolutely amazing, right? As a child, I remember making up these really neat products and even doing pretend marketing ads for them. My boys are the same way. They are always brainstorming when it comes to unique items. Sure, like what I created, they are fictional, but it keeps their imagination alive and it’s so much fun! For the past few weeks, both of my boys have been exploring fun and interesting inventions and designs using Extraordinaires Design Studio.

Extraordinaires Design Studio

This design studio is geared for ages 8 and up and will have your child coming up with mind-boggling inventions. Each Extraordinaire is a colorful character with extraordinary needs. This set offers 255 design challenges across 3 levels that will keep your children drawing and inventing for an entire school year.

Inside you’ll find three sets of cards, idea pad and a pen.

Extraordinaire Cards

These Double-sided cards are brightly illustrated and very sturdy made. Each card has an Extraordinaire and level, and on the back you’ll find more illustrations to give you a look at their life.

Think Cards

The 30 Think Cards located inside the box are in three categories: Research, Design and Improve. This encourages the inventor to put more thought into their design.

Object Cards:

You have 15 Object Cards.  These are the cards that tell you what you’re going to be inventing. It might be something to clean yourself with, an object to carry something in, etc. Just remember that your design has to be something that relevant to the Extraordinaire your chose.

Award Cards:

There are 5 Award Cards. They are for: Best Presentation, Most Wildly Inventive Design, etc. This is great for playing this game as multi-player.  

How to play

Extraordinaires Design Studio is a game that was created to encourage imagination and creativity.  Your child will be asked to design all sorts of mindboggling inventions. It might be a source of light for a Spaceman, a remote control for a Super Hero, or a form of protection for a Pirate.

You can play this as a single-player or multi-player game. For the most part, we played only single-player, but both of my boys participated. This was fun for them, and in the end that’s what matters.

To begin the game, you shuffle the Extraordinaire cards and deal three face-up in front of you. Then you take out the object cards, and put one Object Card face up on each Extraordinaire card. Each pair of cards is a design job.

Next you choose one of three design cards and place them in the display area of the design case.

This is when you use the idea pad and pen to design the ultimate object that will be the needs of your Extraordinaire. You can also use the Think cards to help you with your design. You can draw one or more of this type of card.

Once you have created your object, then you name it and present it. That’s it!

Overall, we have been very pleased with this product. It’s a product that can be used at home, or on the road. The case that it comes in keeps everything very neat and organized. Extraordinaires Design Studio is part of the Timberdoodle Fifth-Grade Curriculum Kit, but can be purchased separately as well.