Cluedo Junior Review

These days, Lara and Holly play a lot of board games after school. Now that Holly is able to understand the rules of a game such as Cluedo (and to some extent, follow them!), the girls can have a lot of fun together playing quiet games after school, or to play as a family with us at the weekends. Cluedo junior is a perfect family board game which we can play as pairs with the girls, or as individuals for a slightly more competitive edge!

We've been playing Cluedo Junior, the case of the missing cake; your challenge is to find out who took the last piece of cake, when they ate it, and what drink they had with it. It's very similar to the traditional grown-up game of Cluedo but with a little bit more guidance and structure (and not a murder in sight!). Inside the box you'll find everything you need for a traditional whodunnit challenge - a set of characters to move around the board and a pad of papers which allow you to tick off the rooms, drinks and times as you move around the board.  Throw the die to move around the board, trying to remember which rooms and pieces of furniture you've already checked.  The girls LOVE the challenge of trying to determine the result by powers of deduction.

 

The girls have played Junior Cluedo several times recently so it definitely has the return-factor for playing again. There are six different characters to play as - some you may recognise (such as miss Scarlet) and others who are new (such as Dr. Orchid the biologist).  It took Lara and Holly a little while to remember the rules about which spaces on the board meant you could check for clues under which things - furniture, or people. Lara has now totally grasped the concept and is very competitive about trying to be the first to guess who ate the last slice of cake!  I think the cake theme is particularly important for Lara who is, herself, a bit of a cake fiend.

I think the beauty of this game is that it isn't childish; it's suitable for everyone in the family and is a genuine challenge but not so hard that it puts people off. I think Cluedo Junior is going to become a family classic in our house.

You can find Cluedo Junior at Smyths Toys for under £15. It is recommended for children from age 5 and I think, given Holly is just about to turn 5, that the age recommendation is spot on.

Christmas Surprises - Orchard Toys Review

The Christmassy magic has begun in the mellow household and the girls are just beginning to feel that first spark of festive fun with this Christmas Surprises game from Orchard Toys.

We love a good family game, especially a game where even Holly, the littlest member of our family feels that she can play as an equal.  Christmas Surprises is just as fun if you are 3, or 33 (or indeed a little more than that...) although it is recommended for children aged 3-6 years old.

Christmas Surprises comes with two different boards to play - Father Christmas or a Christmas Tree - this makes it feel like two different games.  Bonus.  If you play the Christmas Tree board then the aim of the game is to fill your board with coloured baubles by throwing the dice and revealing a different colour of bauble.  On the Father Christmas board you throw the dice to select a shape of present to place into Santa's sack on your board.  Lara and Holly very much enjoy this version of the game as, when it gets to the end, they like turning over their parcels to see what gifts are in them - from teddy bears to cookery equipment!

If you, like me, are a big Orchard Toys fan then you will recognise this game as a festive version of Dotty Dinosaurs (another family favourite).  All four of us can play together so we can can all join in the seasonal fun - I'm quite looking forward to having this as an option to play together on our very first ever Christmas Day with just the four of us (no other family this year for a change).

For Holly, Christmas Surprises is a good exercise in practicing her colours and her shapes.  Lara is currently learning 2D and 3D shapes at school so it is also good practice for her when naming the Christmas present shapes in Santa's sack.

If your are looking for an educational, fun way of getting the whole family into the Christmas mood then I highly recommend Christmas Surprises.  The game costs around £9.50.

The Magic Cauldron - Halloween maths fun!

It is hard to go wrong with an Orchard Toys board game - they are firm favourites in our house.  Orchard Toys wanted to get Lara and Holly into the magical halloween mood by sending us their Magic Cauldron game - a board and counter game packed with spooky spell ingredients and yet which tests their maths skills at the same time!

The Magic Cauldron is suitable for 2-4 players and is recommended for children aged 5-8 years old.  I think it is perfectly suited to Lara who is aged 6 and currently in Year 2 at school.  Holly finds it fun, but very tricky and always needs our help but it is still a brilliant opportunity for us to help her learn about numbers, addition and subtraction.

Each player takes a cauldron-shaped board featuring a witch or a wizard.  The aim of the game is to fill your cauldron with spooky ingredients to make a spell.  Each ingredient corresponds to a number and you have to identify a sum which results in that number.  Most of the sums are very simple addition or subtraction with numbers upto 10 and it is a brilliant exercise for Lara to remember her number bonds.  There are also a handful of very first multiplications and some additions which require three numbers.  

From eyeballs to stinky cheese, and bats to poison... each ingredient requires your child to search for a new sum.  Holly uses it as a chance for her to recognise her numbers upto 10.  We play with the girls and look to Lara to confirm that we have chosen the right sum to match the number but there is also another magical way that you can check that you have the right result... the ghost.

Each maths puzzle has a ghost on the back.  Rub the ghost very quickly with a warm finger to reveal the answer to the sum so that you can check it is correct.  The girls both find this hard to do and will always ask us to do it - it does require a fairly vigorous rub!

We have found The Magic Cauldron game to be a big test of concentration and observation for both girls.  Lara is more than capable of the sums but with them all laid out in front of you, it does take a lot of concentration to spot the one you want.  Despite this, the girls have come back to the game several times and I'm sure we will play it a lot more in the run up to Halloween.

At £11.75 this board game from Orchard Toys is a bargain - lots of family time spent together having fun and (secretly) learning.  Awesome stuff.

Pictopia - A Disney Board Game Review

The Mellow family tradition dictates new board games should be played on rainy evenings during the summer holidays and one of our new family board games is Pictopia, Disney edition.

Pictopia is a picture-trivia quiz game suitable for children from around 7 years old.  We've played it effectively with Lara who is 6 - she needed some help to be explained the rules but quickly picked it up.  I think the primary age limit is that your child needs to be a confident reader in order to be able to pose questions from the trivia cards.

Pictopia, Disney edition features a board where your Mickey-mouse shaped counters have to reach the Disney castle to win.  Along the way you land on spaces which determine the type of question you will face.  All players are asked all of the questions but sometimes you have to answer alone, other times you have to answer as a team.  Before each question you have to place your stakes to show how confident you are that you can get the question correct.

All of the questions in Pictopia are image-based and in this edition each of the 200 quiz cards features 4 Disney images.  There are 1000 questions in total to really stretch your Disney knowledge of movies and characters.

Lara very much enjoyed the game but I think she would still struggle to host the game herself with friends for some time because there are so many different elements to the game - different question types, placing wagers, playing alone or answering together.  It's a game which really requires a "manager" parent to play with them.

In general, I found the game over-complicated; the wagers and answer wheel seemed like distractions from what is actually a very fun and simple picture trivia quiz.  Trivia quiz questions about Disney movies based on recognisable fun pictures should be a game that is simple and fun; but somehow the magic seems to be lessened by all the other activities that are taking place.

Pictopia, Disney edition is suitable for 6 players and the questions really do span the depth and breadth of all things Disney.