Tobey Tamber, who played Academic Games in Pennsylvania, now owns a games-themed coffee shop in Taiwan. He also teaches private English and math classes to students there. Several of the parents of the students and some of the customers were interested in having a games class so that kids could practice English and math while having fun. He started teaching Equations in 2006. They met once a week for about two hours – 45 minutes of exercises/class, 45 minutes of Equations, and a half hour of some other game. Two students and their mothers decided to travel with Tobey to the 2007 AGLOA National Tournament in Wheeling, WV. The students, a third-grader and a fourth-grader, both loved the trip. The plane flight took 22 hours. They arrived about a week early in Tobey’s hometown of Mercer, PA. They hung out there for many days, giving these city kids a taste of country living. [Pictures (and a lot of Chinese explanations) can be found here.]
Tobey’s started On-Sets so that students will be playing at least two games in 2008. The other four academic games will be harder for non-native speakers.