Totem is a one of a kind card game that combines the fun of traditional household games with the sweet and uplifting sentiment of exchanging kind words with one another. We love when our customers share their unique stories with us about how they play Totem with their loved ones!
In an interview with Paige Gallant, she shares her personal experience with us about the value of bringing Totem into her household. Paige provides a detailed view into how she fits Totem into her busy schedule as a stay-at-home mom homeschooling her three children as they currently reside in New Brunswick.
In this customer testimonial, she also gives us tremendous insight on how she uses Totem as an educational resource to support her children’s development. But the best part is that she offers a number of great tips for other parents on different ways to customize this fun-filled activity for the kids!
Totem Team: What type of games do you usually bring into your household? Compared to these games, what makes Totem different?
We love to get educational games for the kids (you can tell we are a homeschooling family with that one). I find that Totem can also be used as an educational game because my kids are learning new words to use weekly.
The way in which Totem is different is that it brings a sense of community. You work alongside each other, building one another up instead of the typical competitive game where you are working against the other person. It also creates dialogue with other people and it always brings a sweet smile to my children's faces.
Another way that Totem is different is that this game is so versatile. You can change, use, and adapt this game to your lifestyle and needs.
Totem Team: What do you love the most about Totem?
I love how adaptable Totem is for our family. I love that it speaks truth into one another and helps us to focus on the good qualities of our family.
Totem Team: Based on your personal experience with this game, what value does it bring to your family?
It opens up dialogue with one another. It helps us to focus on the best parts of ourselves and family. It helps to create a more positive environment and attitude.
Totem Team: Do you have any tips or unique ways to play this game with the kids that you’d like to share with other parents?
We use these cards in so many different ways other than just a simple game.
They are added into our school lessons and interwoven into our character studies. We even use them to settle sibling arguments from time to time, by getting the quarrelling children to pick a card for the other sibling and to say something positive to them instead of focusing on their sibling's annoyance.
Honestly we play it with the whole family. My husband and myself have played it on a date night before, it was nice to be able to have new words to say to each other and was wonderful to see which words he would choose for me and to hear why. It gave us time to talk to each other and have discussions instead of the typical movie night.
With my children we use these cards in a bit of a different way. At the beginning of each week, I will choose some cards that I felt represented them from the past week. They love finding out which animal card and quality I chose for them.
The animals on the cards help my younger children relate to them in a more childlike mindset. I have also noticed that linking the animal to the character traits has helped my children learn these new words of encouragement. They will say for example, "I am a leader, just like the Lion!" It has already provided a much deeper enriched vocabulary for my kids to utilize when explaining the character traits of others, for example, instead of always saying, "You are a nice person,” or "I like how nice you are," ("nice" seems to be my kids go-to word) my kids have now begun to use other words about their siblings like, leader, creative, great storyteller."
Totem Team: Why did you decide to bring Totem into your home? Would you recommend Totem to other parents?
When I saw Totem, I immediately fell in love with the sweet animal characters and I knew right away that my kids would love that too.
I also saw how adaptable these cards could be. I saw right away how the kids could use them whenever we talked about a different animal, when we discussed different character traits, and when we simply wanted to uplift each other. Then, of course, I loved the positive approach to the game – how it builds up and motivates others around us.
