Print a family race game for 2 to 4 players: a 40 square board, 36 or 48 puzzle cards, an answer key and pawns to cut out. Pick the level. Black and white.
Castle Brain Race is a family board game you print and play at the table. Two to four players race their paper pawns along a winding path of 40 squares from START to the CASTLE. The path runs across two landscape pages that you tape together into one long board. Roll a die, or cut out the spinner that comes with the game, and move that many squares. Some squares are special: a Challenge square makes you answer a puzzle card, a lucky square moves you forward 2, a slide square sends you back 2, and a swap square changes places with the player just ahead. The first pawn into the castle wins, and nobody needs an exact roll. It is made for a child of about 6 with a grown-up, but an older brother or sister can join in, and a grown-up can play as one of the racers. The whole game is built in your browser and nothing is uploaded.
Every Challenge square uses a card from a deck of 36 or 48 cards, 12 to a page, with dashed lines to cut along. Each card holds one real puzzle from the kids brain games on this site: a pattern, a balance scale, a who-sits-where puzzle, a science sort, a spelling or reading riddle, a counting puzzle and others. Only puzzles that can be answered with a letter or a number are used, so a card never needs a pencil drawing. A round badge shows the skill, L for logic, M for math, E for English, S for science and P for spatial thinking, and one to three stars show how far a right answer moves the pawn. The stars come from how hard that puzzle is inside its own game, so a hard puzzle is worth more. The cards are shuffled by the game number, so each game has a new deck. The answers are on a separate key page, and the grown-up who reads the cards keeps it face down.
Starter uses only the first two levels of each game, the easy ones, and is meant for a first game with a 6 year old; its cards are worth one or two stars. Explorer mixes easy, middle and hard puzzles. Champion draws from the middle to the hardest puzzles, the ones made to stretch a child who finds other puzzles easy. Inside a level the cards are mixed, so a child sees a few easy wins and a few real thinkers, and the stars tell them which is which. You can also untick skills. A family that wants only math and logic can print a deck with just those two, and the deck is made from those skills alone. A very narrow choice, such as science only at Champion level, may not have enough different cards that fit; the page then tells you how many cards it could make, and a game with fewer cards still works. Pick Letter or A4 paper, and choose 36 cards for a short game or 48 for a longer one with fewer repeats of the same kind of puzzle.
The PDF has 8 pages with 36 cards and 9 pages with 48. Pages 1 and 2 are the board, drawn in black, white and grey, so any printer works and no colour ink is used. Cut page 1 along the dashed line near its right edge, lay the cut edge on the dashed line at the left of page 2, then tape so the path joins up. Page 3 has the rules in plain words for a grown-up to read aloud. Then come the card pages, the answer key, and a last page with four stand-up pawns and a paper spinner with a pointer. Cut each pawn along its dashed outline, fold on the middle line (marked do not cut) like a tent and it stands on the board. Print on plain paper, or on card for sturdier cards. Every page shows the game number at the bottom, the card pages too. Type the same number with the same level, skills, card count and paper size to print exactly the same game again.
This is a game, not a test. It does not record scores, keep a leaderboard or tell you how your child is doing, and there is no timer. A wrong answer only means the pawn stays put while the grown-up says the answer, which is how the cards teach. The puzzles are the same ones as in the on-screen games, so a child who has met them there may remember some answers, and a new game number gives a new deck. Some puzzles in the games need sound or animation, and those are left out of the cards. The board is a plain race with no dice maths, so the skill practice comes from the cards, and it is only as good as the conversation you have while playing. Sit beside your child, ask how they got the answer, and let them explain the wrong ones too.
Two to four. Each player gets a stand-up pawn numbered 1 to 4 with its own shape, so the pawns can be told apart on a black and white print. A grown-up can be one of the players or just read the cards.
About 15 to 25 minutes with 2 to 4 players. Each turn moves a pawn 1 to 6 squares, and about 4 of every 10 squares are Challenge squares, so the 40 squares take around 8 to 12 turns per player.
About 6 and up, played with a grown-up who reads the cards aloud. The Starter level uses only the easiest two levels of each game, which suit a 6 year old playing with a grown-up, and Champion is meant for a child who finds Explorer easy.
Real puzzles from the kids brain games on this site, limited to ones with a letter choice or a number answer and a short question. A badge shows the skill and one to three stars show the points. Long reading passages and puzzles that need sound or animation are left out.
Yes. The game number at the bottom of every page decides the board and the deck. Type that number again with the same level, skills, card count and paper size and you get the same game. A new number gives a new board and new cards.
No colour is needed: everything is black, white and grey. If you have no die, cut out the spinner on the last page and use a pencil or a paper clip as the pointer. The spinner shows the numbers 1 to 6, like a die.
No. The PDF is made in your browser from the game number and your choices. No names, answers or pictures are sent anywhere.