Monkey Pod Games Blog

Hi Everyone,

Here at Monkey Pod Games we love to bring attention important social issues. That is why we want to talk about the amazing charity “Love Without Boundaries”. This organization works hard to help and improve the lives of orphans in China. There are an untold amount of hungry and cold orphans who need our help. Love Without Boundaries has taken the lead in helping these orphans live easier lives. They have made a strong attempt to get people from all over the world to donate to their cause and they have been successful so far. However they still need our help!

Love Without Boundaries helps these children in four major ways:

1. MEDICAL: Love Without Boundaries has sent many teams of doctors to China to perform life saving operations and other necessary treatments to save and improve the lives of young orphans. They still have a serious waiting list which is why they need more help.

FOSTER CARE: Love Without Boundaries has given more than 300 children homes while making sure they are in proper foster homes where they are treated properly.

EDUCATION: Over 200 children are enrolled in educational programs run by Love Without Boundaries. This organization has many programs such as “Believe In Me” aimed at improving the education of these orphans. From pre-school all the way to college, Love Without Boundaries has been there to assist and improve the learning skills and abilities of so many orphans.

NUTRITION: Last but not least, Love Without Boundaries has been sending tons of necessary nutrition and food to different cities and provinces all over China. This is such a crucial aid as the key to smart and independent children are ones that are fed properly.

Love Without Boundaries have had so many success stories. Below is one that is truly touching from their website:

“Julia is one year old, and prior to surgery, suffered from a heart defect called a VSD. Julia suffered many setbacks due to pneumonia that was very difficult to treat. After 66 days in two different hospitals, Julia finally had surgery in December 2009 and is doing really well. We know Julia is feeling better because she likes to make silly faces now! Julia will continue to recover at our Heartbridge Pediatric Healing Unit. We hope 2010 brings another year full of blessings to the children in China and to all of you!! On behalf of all the children in our medical program-thank you!”

As you can see Love Without Boundaries is truly a magnificent charity. That is why we want to do our best to help them and we have decided to give a donation to their charity. But Love Without Boundaries needs alot of help and that can only come from the charitable. We urge you to give any donation you can.

Their website can be visited here at www.lovewithoutboundaries.com or if you need to do some shopping at Amazon, proceed there through this link and Love Without Boundaries will get 4% proceeds off whatever you buy!

The motto of Love Without Boundaries is that “Every child count”. The same goes for every dollar we can give to this amazing charity.

Love,

Monkey Pod Games

www.monkeypodgames.com

Hi Everyone,

This blog post is dedicated to our raffle we are holding! We at Monkey Pod Games feel that sometimes wooden brain teasers are misunderstood. Sometimes people think they are boring and cannot hold up to electronic toys and entertainment.

Well Monkey Pod Games is ready to prove this assumption false! That is why we are holding a raffle to give a free puzzle to one lucky winner. And the puzzle we have chosen to dispel the myths of brain teasers is the SOMA CUBE.

So, lets cut to the important part which is how to get involved! Our raffle is being held through our facebook fan page. All you have to do is go there, become a fan, and then attend the event. It is not enough to just attend the event, you must be a fan aswell. However this whole raffle is free! No monetary costs and no needing to give up any information or pricacy. We have been saying for along time that this social community is for you, the consumers. Hence this raffle is for you all

So we truly hope you will join in the fun and good luck to all!

Warmly,

Monkey Pod Games

We here at Monkey Pod Games want to thank the Masai Warriors for loving our Tumbling Tower Game! We let real Masai Warriors test out our Tumbling Tower Game (a fun family wooden puzzle game) and they loved it!

The Masai are a semi nomadic indigenous people who originate from Kenya and Tanzania. Their language is called the Maa and it is estimated that their population is close to one million nowadays.  They are one of the most well known of African tribes with their distinct beautiful culture. They still keep their traditions and way of life as they did thousands and thousands of years ago. Despite many groups trying to get them to embrace modernity, they have refused and stuck to doing things the way their ancestors lived.  The men and women dress in beautiful flowing clothes and the women wear large colorful unique jewelry. The Masai are an integral and beautiful piece to the puzzle we call human civilization.

The Tumbling Tower is a great game used to bring family members together. It can also be a great ice breaker game. The object is the build the tower as high as you can without bringing down the tower. As all of our puzzles, it is made from our beautiful monkey pod wood. The Tumbling Tower makes for a beautiful wooden puzzle.

Why wait and leave all the fun just to the Masai Warriors? Get your own Tumbling Tower here!

Don’t forget to join our Facebook Fan Page. There we have great offers, competitions, stories and fun! When you join, we will give you as a gift from us, 15% off your next purchase!

As always love from Monkey Pod Games!

So as most of you know, April 15th is when everyone’s taxes are due.  This can be a stressful time but also a time of insecurity because you have to give up alot of your hard earned money. But for the treasures you do get to keep, may we suggest the MAGIC BOX! It is not really a magic box but it is just as cool. Basically, you put your valuables or whatever you want inside the magic box and then the only way to open it is by doing a secret trick! Only skilled handiwork will get the magic box open.

Now, we at Monkey Pod Games are very responsible when it comes to giving advice. We are in the business of making WOODEN PUZZLES and  not safes. So we dont really recommend putting your true valuables inside the magic box. But it is neat for those items of yours that you want to protect from pesty little fingers that belong to curious children.

Or it makes for a great gift idea if you want to put a gift within a gift! Tell the person that they need to open the Monkey Pod Games Magic Box before they get the gift inside.

The Magic Box is beautifully constructed from 18 wood pieces. This Magic Box makes for a great wooden puzzle or wooden game.

Check out the Monkey Pod Games Magic Box here or go to our website at www.monkeypodgames.com

And please dont forget to join our facebook fan page called Monkey Pod Games. When you join, you get 10% off your next purchase! Once more: good luck on those taxes!

WARNING! BELOW IS A PUZZLE SPOILER! BELOW WE HAVE EXPLAINED HOW TO SOLVE THE STAR PUZZLE. IF YOU ARE  STILL TRYING TO SOLVE IT OR WOULD LOVE TO BUY THIS FUN AND TRICKY BRAIN TEASER, DO NOT READ BELOW!

Hi Everyone,

So we have decided to be merciful and show you all how to solve the Monkey Pod Games Star Puzzle. This is one of our most popular puzzles and was even on the hit show Criminal Minds! It is a tough puzzle but alot of fun trying to solve. However, sometimes we just have to get on with our lives and therefore we need a little help. Thats ok, no one is perfect!

So lets delve into it. We will explain in a step by step process how to solve this puzzle.

1. First you need to take apart the puzzle and lay out all the pieces like you see in the picture at the start of this blog

2. The second step is to take two pieces and hold them in the position as shown in the next picture. All the pieces will interlock into each other in the exact same way. Knowing how the pieces interlock is halfway there to solving the Star Puzzle.  Once you have these two pieces, you need to place one piece horizontally into the top niche of the other piece which needs to be held vertically. This can be seen in the picture to your left.

3. Once this is done and you get the feel for how the pieces should lock together you need to add the third piece which fits a bit diagonally/vertically into either one of the empty slots that were created by putting the first two pieces together.

4. Now, this is the trick/spoiler to the rest of the puzzle, so only read ahead if you really want to solve it quick. Most people try and solve the Monkey Pod Games Star Puzzle by putting it together piece by piece until completed. But this is a mistake! Doing it this way, you will close off the final spot for the final piece. Theway to do it is by creating the three piece figure shown above with the other three pieces and then sliding them together. The best trick is to hold the first three piece figure in your first two fingers and thumb and with your other two fingers and free hand, create the same figure. This picture shows how to do it.

5. All you have to do now is to twist the two 3-piece figures together and voila, you have completed the Monkey Pod Games Star Puzzle! This part can be a little tricky so do not get frustrated if it takes a few times to feel it and then slide them in. Sometimes you will be able to slide them together quick and sometimes you have to jiggle with it a bit. Here are two pictures showing how to do it.

Well we hoped this helped for those of you struggling with the Monkey Pod Games Star Puzzle. If you love this type of puzzle, then we really suggest checking out the many more puzzles like this one that we have on our website at www.monkeypodgames.com

Now you can celebrate Easter with a beautiful handmade Egg Tangram

Hi Everyone,

First Happy Happy Easter from everyone at Monkey Pod Games. Easter is right around the corner and I am sure many of you are getting busy in preparation.

What is beautiful about a holiday like Easter is that it is celebrated by so many different cultures worldwide and it is amazing to read about and view all of them. No matter what your tradition is for celebrating Easter, it all adds to the holiday spirit and community that transcends races and borders.

There are many different ways to celebrate Easter and many different objects involved. Everyone loves the Easter Bunny and his eggs. Who doesn’t love a good colorful egg hunt?

At Monkey Pod Games we would like to give our own little contribution to Easter! And that is why we are introducing the Monkey Pod Games Egg Tangram!

The Egg Tangram is a new way to do tangrams. It is 9 pieces (unlike the traditional 7) and in the shape of an egg!. Try and see if you can do all 54 bird shapes from the tangram pieces or try and make up your own designs.

The Egg Tangram is hand made like all our other puzzles and is a great way to spend a part of your Easter. Like our other tangrams, they are educational and alot of fun. And they make great little small gifts!

Check out the Egg Tangram here or just visit our website www.monkeypodgames.com

Don’t forget that if you join our Facebook Fan Page, you will get 15% off your next purchase as a gift from us! All you have to do is join no catches. And we really appreciate any retweets you all can spare.

www.monkeypodgames.com

Hi Everyone!

Today we mark the beginning of our new Monkey Pod Games Facebook Fan Page. It has been around for some time but starting today, we are embarking on alot of cool new ideas and activities. We at Monkey Pod Games want the Facebook Fan Page to be a place you love going too. Remember this Fan Page is for you: THE FANS!

It is about time we get to the good stuff! Drum roll please druuuummmm:

1. When you join our Monkey Pod Games Facebook Fan Page, you will receive 15 % off your next purchase at Monkey Pod Games! WOW.  Here is how it works: when you become a fan, send us an email at adam@monkeypodgames.com and we will get back to you with your gift coupon. It is as easy as that!

2. Each month we will reward the most active user with a free puzzle! WOW WOW WOW. All you have to do is participate in our discussions, contests, and polls, and if you are the most talkative, then a free puzzle will come your way!

3. If you put a fan badge of our page on your facebook profile, then we will give you 10% off a puzzle! That means if you join and then put our badge, you already get 20 percent off a puzzle!

4. Every so often, actually alot, we plan to have cool competitions. When you win, you will get 10% off your next purchase with us. How cool is that? All you have to do is play, enjoy, and then get ready to win Every winner will also make it to our winners page!!!!

We hope you love our new page and activities. If there is something you wish to be there just tell us here or there…Or here and there. Or there but not here !!

So join us and we look forward to getting to know you all!

P.S. For all our blog users, we now have the RETWEET button which is to the right of each article. If you like our article and you are a Twitter member like us, all you have to do is click the button and it will retweet us on your twitter so all your friends can see what you saw!

Thanks and Love from,

Monkey Pod Games Staff

Hi Monkey Pod Game’s fans, readers, critics, supporters, and even detractors,

We want to hear your opinion! Very very soon, we at Monkey Pod Games are going to have alot of brand new things. No I dont mean puzzles, well not yet. What I mean is that we are going to be introducing cool competitions, offers, and most of all gifts. Gifts because we love our fans and readers. We will have games and also articles that are relevant to you, your friends and your family.

But you see, these facebook fan pages, blogs, twitter are all about YOU! We want YOU to have an amazing time. So hear this: We want to hear YOUR opinions.

We are looking to read your ideas about what you want to see on our facebook fan page or what should we talk about on our blogs. It is important to us to be relevant to you all.

One thing though. All opinions need to be kept to under 120 words because I dont have too much time to worry about what you want because I want to watch a big basketball game tonight! JUST KIDDING

www.monkeypodgames.com

Apparently, Day Light Savings Time is on March 14th.  Now that it is the beginning of spring time, we will be moving our clocks forward one hour. There goes an extra hour of sleep! But hey, who doesn’t appreciate a 7 or 8pm sunset? It is terrible when it is 4 o’clock and the sun is down and you feel like it is midnight.

Forgetting the day light saving time benefits on energy, health, economics, and public safety, now everyone has the opportunity to sit out longer in the sun and play a Monkey Pod Game!

At least we know the summer and all its fun is close by

For the puppy lover or for the one who does not want the real thing!

Every parent with a young child deals with this quote at some point during their lives: Mom I want a puppy! Pleaaaassssseeee mom can i have one? I promise to take care of it and love it all the time. Everyone loves kids. And everyone loves puppies. But let’s be honest. Your little six year old kid isnt going to be walking it at 6 a.m. when it is sub zero outside with ice rain coming down. Most likely it will be you. We love puppies here at Monkey Pod Games and we believe in giving as many animals a loving home as possible. But sometimes the timing is not right. And we all know how important is to be able to take care of a dog properly. There are alot of responsibilities. So sometimes when your child is looking up with those big beautiful eyes and begging for a puppy you just have to say no. We personally believe however that waiting is sometimes a good thing!

Thankfully in the meantime there are other things you can get your child. Out of the million of toys you could get your child, only one really comes to mind which is a MONKEY POD GAMES PUPPY PUZZLE!

“Alright Monkey Pod Games. Give us the facts. We won’t just believe you hands down. We wan’t the facts!” say’s the critic. Fair enough. Every statement deserves backing. So here are the facts:

1. It is made of course from our beautiful monkeypod wood. The puppy puzzle is made up of ten hand crafted sturdy pieces.

2. It is crafted in the KUMIKI STYLE! This is a centuries old Japanese style that has lasted since the Meiji period in Japan. It is a simple yet sturdy style of building puzzles in different shapes such as airplanes, cars, or even puppies! There has been many “Kumiki” puzzle masters who have kept the tradition and artistry alive.

3. This is a great puzzle for parents to do with their kids. They more or less get a puppy and a cool puzzle for their room. Or for the puppy enthusiast who already has dogs, this can also make an amazing gift for the house or office.

4. It never needs to be fed or walked! No 6 a.m. dashes to the field before something stinky ends up on the kitchen floor.

Well fans and skeptics, these are our facts! Or reasons to buy the puppy puzzle, which I must add is being sold at a great price. Check out the puppy puzzle here!