Review: Sunya Addition & Subtraction Game
It can be tricky to turn practicing math facts into something fun. Sunya takes a great stab at it with an interesting combo of a game involving number sentences and riddles! Sunya Publishing sent us their new game, Sunya – The Magic and Wonder of Math and Science Adding & Subtracting, ages 7+, to try. We received an instruction manual and two decks of cards. Super D and I had fun trying it out, and getting competitive with the riddles!
The basic premise of the game involves making number sentences. The instructions come with three different versions of the game to play – we just tried out the first one. One deck of cards is for the number cards and the other for riddle and function cards. The game starts by laying out a number sentence of your choice (5 – 3 = 2), for example. Each player is dealt 4 cards, and takes turns making new number sentences. New cards can be drawn when necessary, and the game can get more competitive by adding “blocking” rules. The instructions were a bit difficult to figure out, but we got the main premise and then modified as we went.
When the player is about to make their last number sentence before running out of cards, they call out “Sunya”. If they forget, they have to draw a card and the game keeps going. Sunya comes from a Sanskrit word meaning empty, or void of any quantity.
The winner of the hand gets to draw a riddle card and read it to the rest of the players. We got a kick out the riddles – reading them was one of our favorite parts of the game! Our favorite riddle has become a household joke: “What did the math book look so sad?” “Because it had many problems.” We’ve had much laughter over that one!
Sunya is designed for ages 7+ (kids who are learning addition and subtraction) and is geared for 1 – 5 players.
I liked that younger children could show their cards and get help making number sentences without any penalty. It kept everyone involved. Super D’s competitive nature came out, and he was eager to make new number sentences so he could win the hand and get to try to stump us with a riddle card.
This game is not yet available for sale, but the company estimates a launch date of May 27.
They also offer a Multiplication and Division version, recommended for ages 9 and up.
