The Zoombinis are happy, hard-working, prosperous, peaceful little folk.  They live on their island in the sea producing fine items that are shipped all over the world.  But the Bloats come along and deceive the Zoombinis and take over the island, forcing the Zoombinis to work for them.  The Zoombinis can only put up with that kind of treatment for so long, and soon they dig a tunnel down to the seashore to await you (the player) to guide them through many challenges to their new land where they will build a brave, new Zoombiniville, free from the negative influence of the Bloats. 

Sounds fun, huh?  And it really is, but it's not a walk in the park.  I bought it mostly for my 9-year-old daughter to help her with her thinking skills.  I would like her to be a little bit more analytical and possibly develop some forethought rather than jumping into things without considering the consequences.  She loves it and plays it often--probably 3 times a week.  Nope--she's not tired of it yet. 

My 11-year-old son also enjoys Zoombinis (we don't use the whole name; we just call it Zoombinis).  What's strange is that he's not usually too big on games that I buy for educational purposes.  He still likes Age of Empires more than Zoombinis, but Zoombinis is up there on the "wanna play" list.  He especially enjoys helping me and giving me hints as I stumbled through the game. 

Parenting Magazine gave Zoombinis an award as did PC Gamer and the Software Publishers' Association.  And Zoombinis supports math standards set by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM)--that's nothing to sneeze at.  But why the awards?  What's the big deal?  This program makes developing advanced mathematical and scientific problems solving skills fun and interesting.  Here's a list from the back of my box that lists the skills developed: 

Observation Skills 
Data Sorting and Ordering 
Pattern Finding 
Theory Testing 
Graphing 
Logical Reasoning 
Problems Solving 
Statistical Thinking 
Algebraic Thinking 
Set Theory 

And this is learned without having to do any arithmetic or having to manipulate any numbers!!!  The above skills "... range from the most basic principles of logical thinking (cause and effect, order and sequence) to concepts that are studied formally in college."¹   Zoombinis engages players in some of the math skills that our children will need in the 21st century as they write computer programs, use and create spreadsheets, etc.   The funny thing here is, though, that my son says, "There is no math in it!"  So the authors of Zoombinis have got him fooled.  Actually, they've got me fooled, too.  I've played the early parts of Zoombinis and have wondered, "Where is the math?" But then I only took two years of math in high school and managed to get through four years of college unscathed (my liberal arts degree required one year of science or math).  Obviously, I'm not someone that would even notice math skills in a software program if they jumped up and tweaked my nose.  But the publishers say that those math skills are in there.  I suppose it could actually be a plus that they aren't that noticeable. 

Okay, so it's fun, teaches many math skills, and seems like it has no math in it.  So what's going on in this program?  Well, the player is taking the Zoombinis through 12 different games (with 4 different levels for each game).  A player receives 16 Zoombinis to lead through the 12 games and on to Zoombiniville.  It's not that difficult to lose a few Zoombinis along the way.  Happily, these "lost" Zoombinis always make it back to join you on your next trip through.  There are so many funny, creative games to play along the way.  One is called Fleens!  The Fleens are the mutant cousins of the Zoombinis. The Fleens used to look a lot like the Zoombinis, but a bad batch of hair mousse messed up their genetic makeup.  (This stuff is funny, no?)  Anyway, somehow the player is supposed to figure out how their 16 Zoombinis correlate to the 16 Fleens.  I haven't figured this game out yet, but both my kids have. So there's hope for me. 

Another of the games is Pizza Pass.  The Zoombinis must deliver the proper pizza to Arno, the Almost Omnivorous, one very hungry and very demanding Pizza-Eating Tree Troll.  The player makes pizzas with various toppings hoping that the proper pizzas will please Arno.  Some of the other games are Allergic Cliffs, Titanic Tattooed Toads, Captain Cajun's Ferryboat, Hotel Dimensia, and Bubblewonder Abyss.  Aren't those fun-sounding games?