Endango: Environmental Board Game that’s fun for the family

We’re a total game family. At least once a week, we try to have family game night and on any given rainy or otherwise quiet day we can spend hours playing games.
So when we got the sample of Endango by Elastic Earth last week, my 5-year-old and I ripped open the package and started playing. Endango, created for kids ages 6 and up, is user-friendly enough that I only had to skim the instructions to start playing. Though its definitely a game for readers (there’s a huge deck of cards with mulitple choice and true/false questions that players read to each other) it can be adapted for non-readers and younger children.
The objective: to save your endangered animals (each player has 3, categorized by their habitat) by moving your human player along a learning trail. Each spot on the trail assigns the player positive or negative points that relate to something you can do positively or negatively to our environment (example, eat an apple gets you a positive point while leaving the water running may give you a negative point.) Each point tells you which way to move one of your endangered animals–towards saved or extinct. Also along the human trail are several Endango spots, which prompt a competing player to read draw a card and challenge the player with a quiz question, of course, about the environment.
Why we loved it: The game involved all the players, all the time. Created for 2-4 players, everyone is learning and talking about how we can save our animals, and our environment as we go. Learned were great vocabulary words and discussions began about recycling, conserving and animal habitats. While it was a long game (we played in two sittings), it was easy to take a break and come back to later. And the animal pawns, as well as the images on the game board were professional, exciting and inviting.
Found it on sale at 5% off at My Toy Smart. And check out the YouTube demo to see the game in action.