Little Homeschool on the Prairie: Continent Race from Byron's Games Review

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

My family loves board games. I love it when the board games are educational games and Continent Race from Byron's Games made both the kids and I very excited. We have been playing Continent Race in our home and it has traveled a few places to play this unique game.

Continent Race is for ages 7 and up and for 2+ players.

Byron's Games is a huge heart tug for me as a mom with a child with special needs that can relate to many hospital events throughout the years. You see the “Bryon” in the company name was created by a then 6 year old Bryon who found himself in an extended stay in the hospital. Bryon had a passion for geography and his stay corresponded during the 2016 Summer Olympics in which he kept track of the medal count of the countries. After the Olympics ended he was encouraged to create a game off of country flags. Bryon wanted to share his game with other kids who are in the hospital. The story doesn’t end there in December 2018 Bryon sent his Continent Race to 130 children hospitals. A portion of every purchase is donated to select children charities. You can read about his story here.

A picture of all the pieces in the game. This is a completed game

Continent Race comes with:

World Map Game Board

205 Country Cards

3 Antarctica Wild Cards

5 Continent List With Maps

The quality of the board and cards is very good.

The object of the game is to collect 4 country cards per continent with the exception of Australia (2). You will lay down your sets before the other players. This is a world geography game.

The World Map Game Board is colored-coded with each continent a different color. The colors correspond with the Country Cards. This color-coding makes it easy for players who are struggling readers and even for those who don’t know their continents.

There are two levels of play: Basic Level of Play & Advanced Level.

The Basic Level:

Continent Race only takes a few minutes to set up. A dealer will deal out 7 cards face down. The player doesn’t want to show their cards to the other players. The player on the left goes first by selecting a card from the draw pile. If you are able to complete a continent you lay down your set which the play cards are color coded. Four cards are collected from Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas and two cards from Australia. Antarctica is a wild card that can be used to complete a set.

If not you will discard a card and your turn is finished. When you discard you must announce the country name and continent. You must draw cards to always have 7 cards in your hand. The next player can take the discarded card if they can complete a set with it and they must be able to put down a set immediately. Every turn a player will draw from the “draw pile.”

The first person to lay down 3 sets on 3 different continent is the winner. (We made it 4 sets in our home) You can continue with the remaining players to decide 2^nd place, 3^rd place, and so on.

Advanced Level:

If you want to make the game more challenging, you can add in the mystery cards.

You can see all the cards here, the cards with the ? are the Mystery Cards and the card with the C in a circle are the Challenge Cards. The other two would be your "normal" play cards.

The mystery cards are only for the Advanced Level and are not color-coded by continent. You have to find the continent that card is located on. This is where your 5 Continent List With Maps comes into play. If you can’t locate the place you can call out, “Mystery Continent” to let the other players for help locating it. Then you can keep or discard the card.

For this level you have to collect 5 set cards of the continents. You can also challenge another player for a “face off” which is done with the "Challenge Symbol” on the “Challenge Cards” The objective is to see who can name more countries on a specific continent.

Continent List With Map Cards. Both front and back view

You get 15 seconds to glance over the Continent List With Maps card. You take turns saying the name out loud going back and forth, until one player can’t say a name. If you win the challenge you can draw 3 cards and discard any care you want as long as you keep 7 cards in hand. We didn’t do this option as my daughter wouldn’t have been able to do this.

How did we use Continent Race in our homeschool?

Family Game Night

My family played this game several times as a family. We even got dad involved in the game play. My son is 14 and my daughter has significant learning challenges and is 17.

My daughter loved playing with her friends

My daughter loved the ease of the game. She took the game to our congregation to play with her friends. One of her friends just turned 6 and she was able to play the Basic Level with ease. They played the game several times throughout the day.

My daughter wanted to share the game with her Autism Therapist

Another place my daughter wanted to play the game was with her therapist. She took the game to her therapy and played with her therapist while working on her therapy skills. The therapist loved the game and plans on ordering it herself. She loved that it is easy to comprehend and the game plays fairly fast. She loved that Bryon’s Games support children’s charities. She thinks that Continent Race would be good for the residential home for kids with Autism and the school located on the campus. Not to mention other therapist who see outside clients like her there.

My daughter preferred the Basic Level over the Advanced Level. My son preferred the Advanced Level. Mom and dad just played whatever level the kids were playing.

I loved that the game is very simple to set up. As a mom with a busy schedule I love that the game plays fairly quickly. We have played from 20 minutes to 30 minutes.

I love that my kids are learning continents and countries while playing the game. I love seeing a child give back and that is what I really love the most is knowing that Bryon used his time in the hospital to create a unique game and is giving back and making a difference in the lives of other children.