Osmo Unboxing and First Impressions
For the last year or so, We’ve been hearing a lot about the Osmo and how much parents and kids love it. We’d been meaning to look into it, but frankly were also a little wary as we try to regulate iPad time among the kids (and ourselves!) and are careful with the games, apps and technologies we introduce.
A few weeks ago, we took the leap, and I wish we’d jumped in sooner.
The Osmo does incorporate the iPad heavily, but its elements of play “beyond the screen,” are so engaging that it casts the iPad into a supporting role as children manipulate objects in the real world. As a parent, I love to see my kids engaging in play with a digital device that doesn’t just render them glassy-eyed and slack-jawed.
But I am getting ahead of myself. Let’s walkthrough a bit of an unboxing and I’ll share some thoughts on the first few games we played.
The Genius Kit
The specific kit we decided to buy was the Osmo Genius Kit, which included the base and several games, including:
We also grabbed two additional games:
Those two games easily put me over the top when I was on the fence about purchasing the Osmo.
Unboxing and Set-up
In the main Osmo box, you’ll find a box for the base and a red reflector that points your iPad camera down to the table, a few Osmo stickers, some set-up instructions, info on the two games that don’t have external pieces (Newton and Masterpiece) and separate boxes for the Tangram, Words and Numbers games.
The physical set-up of the Osmo was easy. You may need to swap out the rails that secure your iPad depending on your model, but this takes seconds. After that, just plop in the iPad, secure the reflector to the top and you’re ready to go.
Once you’ve done this, the printed instruction sheet will direct you to my.playosmo.com to register your device and download one or more of the Osmo apps. The online signup is simple and after a few clicks and some info, Osmo sends you an activation code.
Osmo has dedicated apps for each of its games, but one of the things I liked about the setup was that I only had to enter my activation code when I opened the first game. Subsequent games knew about my device and didn’t hassle me to dig that code back out to re-register.
With the registration done, we were ready to play.
The Games: Tangram
I let my 3 year old (Matthew) have the first crack at the Osmo, and he chose to play the Tangram game, which was right up his alley. The game is clean and minimal and does a great job of handholding kids through building basic shapes from the tiles. And it didn’t take long for the other two boys (and a friend) to come wandering in to see what their younger brother was doing.
With some assistance from his older brothers, Matthew was easily able to complete a few puzzles. We haven’t delved deep into the game yet, but everyone was intrigued to see that each puzzle unlocked a new stage on a virtual map, complete with castles and other fun places to visit.
The Games: Pizza Co.
After a few rounds of Tangram, the boys insisted we move on to Pizza Co. Pizza Co. puts you in the role of owner and chef for a pizza restaurant. Each day, after receiving a delivery of ingredients, customers stream through and place an order. Sometimes they place simple orders, like cheese or a single ingredient. Sometimes their orders are more complex, with several ingredients or ingredients placed in precise arrangements around the pie.
To fulfill the order, you use a cardboard pizza and arrange cardboard ingredients on top before sliding the pizza into the oven. When you’ve done that, your customer will provide a visual cue as to how well you did in fulfilling their order.
In addition to baking pizza, Pizza Co. also incorporates a little math by having the players take payment and make change for customers. After a customer is done eating, they’ll pay for their pizza (and maybe provide a tip). If the pizza was $11 and they gave you a $20, you need to figure out how much to give them back and place cardboard dollars and cents on the table. This also happens in the flow of customers coming in and ordering, which adds a bit of urgency and fun to the whole thing.
One of the best aspects of the change-making component of the game is that it’s customizable based on the kid. You can stick to dollars-only, or adjust the difficulty to use 25-cent increments, or even 10- 5- and 1-cent denominations.
This game was a LOT of fun for all of us, and as you advance, customers become more frequent, and more picky. At one point, we were all frantically working together to get pies in the oven and change made to keep our virtual customers happy. So far, Pizza Co. is my favorite of the games we’ve played.
The Games: Coding Awbie
Finally, we switched gears to Coding Awbie. Much like Tangram and Pizza Co., it did not disappoint.
In Coding Awbie, your objective is to help a cute blue monster named Awbie navigate around his world so he can find his favorite food: strawberries. To navigate Awbie, players use physical blocks to build a program. Each block has an action (like walk or jump), a direction (which is controlled by a dial with an arrow) and an optional number tile that can be affixed to the main tile.
Players add one or more tiles to the table in front of the screen to build up a program. Then, they “execute” the program by hitting a play button on a green tile at the end of the program. Awbie will then follow the steps they’ve laid out.
The game does a fantastic job teaching kids to use the blocks and providing fun, fast feedback as they run their programs. As a long-time software developer, I loved seeing how quickly my boys took to the concepts in this game.
This is an amazing game and the boys ended up playing for close to an hour our first day and another hour the next day. And in between, they talked about the game non-stop and strategized what they would do the next time they got to help Awbie find more strawberries.
Other Games
We’ve only scratched the surface of the Osmo, playing 3 of the seven games that we have so far. I’m excited to unleash Masterpiece on the boys, who spend a lot of time drawing pictures and illustrating their stories. And on the science side of things, Newton looks to be a fun way to get the boys excited about physics.
Final Thoughts
As I said at the start of this post, I was initially hesitant about the Osmo because I wasn’t looking for more ways to get my kids glued to an iPad. And while we may be late to the game, I absolutely love this system and recommend it without reservation. The physical, “beyond the screen” materials make the Osmo a true innovation that uses the screen as a companion to the physical world, instead of merely an escape from it.
We’ll be going on a three-week road-schooling trip next month. Space in the vehicle will be limited, but you can bet that the Osmo is coming along for the ride to be our “STEAM on the Road” setup.
Win an Osmo with our Ultimate Maker Essentials Giveaway!
If this post piqued your interest in the Osmo, you should consider entering our giveaway for the Ultimate Maker Essentials kit before August 28th! We’re giving away over $1,000 in books, kits and other great resources, including an Osmo. Enter to win here, and tell a friend!
