News, Reviews, and Recommendations!

Feed your mind

Can you create the best crew to sail the 7 seas and get you the most gold?
Captain Flip is a lightweight, family-friendly game for 2–5 players, aged 8 & up, with a typical playtime of around 20 minutes. 

For homeschoolers, games like these are a powerful tool - not just for learning logic or practicing reading, but for building perseverance, confidence, and a lifelong love of learning.

Because homeschooling isn’t just about ticking curriculum boxes or getting perfect test scores. It’s about raising curious, capable kids who know HOW to think - not just WHAT to think.

When all the focus is on results, kids don’t learn to love learning - they just learn to fear failure.

And that’s the opposite of what we want.

Games like these teach kids (and adults!) that success rarely happens on the first try - and that’s totally okay. Getting it wrong the first time isn’t failure - it’s part of the process. 

Learning that genuinely feels like play!

If you’ve played Spot It! before and loved it, you’ll jump straight into these with no learning curve at all - because Super Genius uses the same gameplay. 

It’s fast-paced, fun, and perfect for kids who love a little competition… and all the while, it sneakily builds real learning while everyone’s too busy trying to win!

This week’s pick might not sound as exciting as some of the fun activities I usually recommend - but I genuinely love these books and suggest them to everyone!

Whether your child is struggling with maths or does it for fun, these workbooks can be a great little addition to your daily routine.

They’re simple, structured, and confidence-boosting - and actually kind of fun!

I believe that every child is beautifully and wonderfully unique - each with their own passions, strengths, and way of learning. 

But when a child starts to fall behind in reading, and everyone else around them seems to be picking it up easily, it’s heartbreaking how quickly their confidence in so many areas of life can start to fade.

At that point, it’s not just about reading anymore - it starts to affect how they see themselves.

My educational pick of the week (coinciding with Homeschool Wednesday!) is a little book which we’ve used in our homeschooling program for years.

My Special Word Collection is great for kids who aren’t confident with spelling. Having their own, personalised list of frequently used words which they can access and look up any time they’re writing, can help build confidence as they don’t have to worry about drawing attention to their spelling abilities. Not having to ask for help, and not having to worry that they’re spelling a word incorrectly can give kids more confidence when putting their ideas down on paper.

This tends to help reluctant writers overcome a big hurdle, making writing much less intimidating.

This week, my recommendation is a reading/writing/comprehension workbook series which I’ve discovered here at Brain Spice recently.

It’s not often I get excited about workbooks. They’re great, and they have their place, but “exciting” isn’t normally how I’d describe them. HOWEVER… this is a series that I was pleasantly surprised by - and I would definitely recommend! 

The name of the series is Reading For Me. It’s a fantastic and affordable open-and-go workbook for homeschoolers, or for parents wanting to help their kids with their reading/writing/comprehension skills.

It’s Wednesday! Which means if you’ve been wanting to learn more about homeschooling, today’s a great day to come visit Brain Spice! I thought I’d quickly also mention this cool new game which we’ve started stocking at Brain Spice. It’s such a clever way to help kids practice their reading. It’s great for homeschoolers, parents of school kids, teachers, and tutors!

Hi everyone! Janelle here again (the lucky homeschool Mum who gets to spend 11am-2pm each Wednesday at Brain Spice, chatting about all things education and homeschooling). Something I love about Brain Spice is that the store really encourages “Play is the brain's favourite way of learning”. So in that spirit, I thought I’d share an awesome little game we currently have in stock… 

Japanese company Tenyo has been creating highly collectible pocket magic for almost 30 years!

Tenyo's founder, Akira Yamada, established the Tenyo Magic Research Institute back in 1953, following in the footsteps of his professional magician father.