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Entries Tagged as 'games'

Rat-a-tat-cat: An addictive card game for any age

March 29, 2016

$card games to help with math skills$

If you love a fun, fast-paced card game like us, you will love Rat-a-tat-cat. Anya was gifted this card game a little while ago and we are addicted! And the bonus is that this is a card game that helps with maths skills, especially addition.

Rat-a-tat-cat is a card game all about numbers and memory with the aim being to get the lowest total. Each of the cards has a number value and they are all either rats or cats on the cards. The rats are the dirty higher numbered cards you want to avoid and the cats are the cool lower value cards that you want to get. The player with the lowest total wins. It’s an easy game to get to grips with and has good mix of chance and skill so it’s not only the adults who can win. In fact we are so often beaten by Anya!

Each individual game lasts no more than a couple of minutes so the game is easy to squeeze in anytime and you never get a chance to get bored. But if you want a longer game which is always what we go for, you just keep totalling up scores to a set number like 100 or 150 and the first player to get this loses. The game is basically a pack of cards so really easy to take along with you on a trip away – great for plane or train journeys . It’s probably best for ages 6 years and up and is a fun way to sneak in a bit of maths too.

Rat-a-tat-cat is such a simple game, yet so addictive. And since its a card game that helps with maths skills in a really fun way, it just makes it even better for me. It’s won many awards but it’s not difficult to see why. My UK readers can find the game here and my US readers here.

Airside Andy (learning through creative play )

March 21, 2016

We’re not huge on repetitive games apps in this house – you know the kind where the only aim is to progress to level 2000! For me, I love an app that makes my life easier or more organised and for Anya I like creative or stimulating apps. Once in a while a new game comes along that does more than being just a repetitive game and that’s when it gets my attention.

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Dobble: A quick, fun and addictive card game

February 11, 2016

Do you know dobble, the round card game? Anya was recently gifted this game and we love it for so many reasons. Dobble is a simple card game where you have to find the matching symbol between one card and another. Each card has only one symbol on it that matches every other card in the deck. It sounds pretty easy but dobble is harder than it looks. It’s all about being observant and quick! You can happily play with just two players but the more players you have the harder it gets to win.

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Colourful wooden toys and decorations

March 2, 2015

Today it’s a colourful start to the week with these beautiful wooden toys and decorations. For me, the simplest toys are always the best. They allow a child to use their imagination and what is better than that? These toys which include stacking stars and wooden puppets are not only beautiful to look at but are just the kind of toys that encourage all kinds of pretend play. And then there are the sweet decorations including that colourful elephant garland. These wooden decorations and toys are the creation of New York based designer Laura Rodriguez who wanted to make designs that were playful and simple and that appealed to the whole family. Laura’s creations called Luez designs are meant to bring a smile to your face and a bit of cheer to any room in your home which is exactly what they do.

Cute games on the go!

October 1, 2014

Do your kids constantly ask to play board games? In our home Anya loves to play games. If I agreed to it, she would have me playing from morning to night. I normally enjoy playing with her, that is until she loses. Then it’s tears and grumpiness and everything that all five year olds do when they don’t win. But I can’t blame her too much because I still don’t like losing! Who does? Games also make fun birthday gifts especially when you don’t know the child too well so recently while searching for a gift I came across these adorable games. So cute aren’t they? With bright colours and cute illustrations most of these handmade games are small so they’re perfect at home or on the go too.

Games on the go!

July 15, 2014

With the Summer holidays coming up and all the traveling many of us have planned, I wanted to share these fabulous portable travel board games with you. Apart from being beautiful to look at, the best part of these games is that the board is made of fabric and doubles up as the bag to store all the wooden counters. What a clever and practical idea especially for taking on long road trips or even plane and train journeys. A French creation, these games include checkers, chess and tic tac toe. Recently, they have also introduced some colourful card games that are just as easy to take on your travels. Anything that makes long journeys easier has to be a good thing! These board games are available in many countries and you can see all the stockists here.

Beautiful board games

May 28, 2014

In the UK, we’re on half term school holidays this week and after having a glorious week of sunshine last week, this week is rain, rain and more rain. So we’re inside more than out and one of our favourite indoor activities is board games. We’ve been playing all our old favourites like checkers and snakes & ladders but I love finding new games to play too. So I went looking and came across these beautiful board games from Hungary. Inspired by the magical world of fairy tales and the vivid imagination of a child, these games are beautifully illustrated in great detail. Mostly made by hand, these games are made to last through generations. Even the counters aren’t the usual plastic pieces but instead the bases are made of wood and they come with detailed drawings on cardboard that slot in to the bases. These captivating board games are made by Marbushka who only have retailers in Hungary but they ship worldwide.