The Play's The Thing

Board Games are enjoying a surge in popularity. At my conference the other weekend,someone brought a stack of about 30 for people to try out. When a strategy game like"'Carcassonne" will set you back about thirty quid, you want to be sure you like it before you shell out you hard earned dosh. The trad games,like Scrabble, Monopoly etc retain their popularity. In the summer, we enjoyed Cluedo with Julian one evening.

But I want to flag up a excellent company which produces games for children - and it's based just a few miles away from here, in the Norfolk town of Wymondham [pronounced Windham by the way] 

There are quite a few of the Orchard Toys which are enjoyed in our family. Shopping List is suitable for 3-7 year olds, with 2-4 players. 

And a while back, I picked up Greedy Gorilla in a CS. You often see these boxed games going for a pound or two and they are worth getting.

The great thing about these games is that they avoid using plastic wherever possible - perhaps a few counters and a dice, but certainly not many little plastic bits to get lost!

Greedy Gorilla does need a battery though. Because as you turn over the cards, healthy foods go onto your playing board, but unhealthy stuff is fed to the gorilla, who then burps loudly! This makes the game very popular with small children.
Rosie's set has a flat battery - so on Saturday we all had to make our own burps [even more laughter]

You often see these games in Lidl and Aldi too - I got the Manchester boys a box of 3 dinosaur games in the summer.
When Liz and Steph were small, I tried to get them Ravensburger games, which were good quality, and designed to be enjoyable and educational. Orchard Toys are similar.

There are other benefits too 

• an excellent website, easy to find what you want, sorted by age and subject
• a blog with news and ideas
• lots of free downloadable printables
• a replacement service if parts do go missing, or you lose your instructions

This is a quite unsolicited recommendation - but in the run up to Christmas, if you have little ones to buy gifts for, please do take a look at this company. Their prices range from £3 stockingfillers to complex jigsaws  for £16 [designed for older children, these come with posters and fact books included in the box] Personally I'd rather buy something produced in Norfolk than shipped across the world. And I would rather sit round the dining table as a family playing a game than have everyone sitting playing on their own screens.