A friend recently asked what activities we engage the kids in when we are at home. The first thing that popped into my mind was board games. And if you’ve been hanging around reading this blog for a while, you’ll know how much we love unique ones, apart from the run-of-the-mill toys-r-us type.
Personally, after a long day, I particularly like de-stressing and chatting with the kids over a board game of their choice. Here are two new ones we like, that our friend Pam, boss of My First Games, introduced to us recently.
ColorPop
The girls loved it from the first day they saw it, and B especially, would ask to play it for a few days in a row! I’d say it’s suitable for ages 3 and up.
The premise of the game is a little like Candy Crush (which incidentally I have never downloaded or played, though I have seen many a fellow MRT commuter at it, and received many annoying FB invites to play it).
The wonderful part of this game is how physically tactile it is. First, we set up the board by slotting in (there is a very satisfying click to that) all the little candy-coloured pops (each vertical column is removable), no more than 5 of the same colour in a row. Then we ‘draw lots’ (there are secret black-bottomed pops for this purpose) to determine which colour is ‘yours’.
Then players take turns to ‘punch out’ their colour, at least two vertically or horizontally. White is a ‘wild card’ that can be the same as any adjoining colour. The pops will then emerge at the bottom of the tray, for collection!
It sounds simple, but has given us endless fun! One round takes about 15 minutes, or slightly more of you have dawdlers like mine. There are ebbs and flows to their interest in the game, as with all games, but I think ColorPop has true lasting attraction to our family, so I am going to purchase it, whee! Friends who visit, let me know if you want to play with this and I’ll bring it out! 🙂
Flea Circus
Next, we were also introduced to the game Flea Circus. It’s really quirky, a tad in the vein of Dr Seuss, so those of you who like his books will like this game!
The premise of the game is to attract ‘audience members’ of dogs and cats to watch your fleas perform. Each player is dealt a set of cards from the deck to play in turn.
The cards represent clowns, animal trainers, fire-breathers, etc and the ‘points’ on the card determine how many dogs and cat spectators you can ‘earn’ in that turn. Depending on the card, the dogs and cats can be taken from the main pool, or *gasp* snatched from a rival player.
I would say that this game is more suitable for those 5 and above, but with some guidance, my almost-four year old had lots of fun playing too. She particularly enjoyed lining the cats up, and then stacking the dogs up! What’s fun about this card game is the fact that it incorporates animal figures, which are very well constructed.
Another plus (pun intended) is that one dog is equivalent to 2 cats, so if you are in the business of serious home-learning, or would appreciate opportunities to reinforce math concepts of addition, subtraction multiplication in 2s, then you will love this game. No cuter way to learn math.
Other cool games that we’ve tried and enjoyed are here!
Note: We were loaned the games for the purpose of this review. No monetary compensation was received, and all opinions on how fun the games are, are wholly ours. 🙂
Facebook Comments