Cuisine & Culture the Chinese Family Way
There are only 6 shopping weeks left before Christmas! Have you started your shopping yet or is it going to be a last minute dash? How about get your children into the mood by being Santa’s little elf and helping him? PNP Santa Sprint app has been released by the makers of Portable North Pole. In this game, you are a little elf helping Santa to prepare for Christmas and you unlock exclusive video story tales featuring Santa Claus himself upon completing levels.
After such a long month waiting, the wait is finally over! Skylanders Swap Force has landed and we have the starter pack for review. The excitement of both of my children plus Mr C was palpable! Mr K had played with them in Argos Christmas July and he had been pestering me since! This starter pack comes with 3 Skylanders figures, 1 Portal of Power, 1 Character Poster, 3 Sticker Sheets with Secret Codes, 3 Trading Cards and of course the video game.
Did you know a child born in the UK today will spend almost a quarter of their life watching screen technology? I could not agree more. Every morning, Mr K will go downstairs and switch on the television to watch his Cbeebies or play iPad apps. When they get back after school, the first thing both children want to do is watch television or play games. They love to play in the garden or to play on their bikes but it is not always possible as it either raining or too cold. Just because the good old British Winter is back doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy fun activities indoors.
We have received a “rainy day activity pack”, which contains over 10 items such as elephant foam mask, a yo-yo, large balloon, puppet mouse, tracing book and other little great treats for us to use. It didn’t take us long to make use of these items. It has been raining cats and dogs for days now. So we have been playing with the mini fishing, pretending to be an elephant, blowing bubbles, playing with the balloon and playing with the puppet mouse. We’re grateful for this great rainy day pack. They are great! My children have had a lot of fun playing with these!
Wordsearch Junior is based on the same clever ‘turntable’ design of the original Classic Wordsearch! game, and is easily set up for play. It is suitable for aged four and above for two to four players. It comes with 9 puzzle cards, 1 game board base, 1 ring, 1 transparent playing disc, 35 marking chips of red, green, yellow and blue and 1 instruction manual.
Ho! Ho! Ho! It’s Christmas Eve and Santa needs to make sure all the presents are delivered on time, and to the right addresses. In this game, you are Santa and you don’t have any elves to help you! When I first read the instructions, it looked so complicated as there are so many rules to remember! After playing for the second time though, it is in fact quite easy.
Dobble is a fast and furious family card game for 2 – 8 players aged 6 and above that can be played by anyone, regardless of age and interests. It consists of 55 cards, with 8 symbols per card. The cards are thin and easy to hold. The symbols come in varies sizes which make it quite hard to spot sometimes, especially the smaller ones, which makes this game so interesting! The symbols are very cute and bright.
Since last week, The Official LOGO board game app for both iPhone and iPad devices, is on the iTunes App Store list, is completely free to download until 31st December 2013. Sorry to Android users! Of course as a family gamer, I had already downloaded and played it! This is the one and only Official LOGO app, published with fully granted permissions and approvals from all the contributing companies. Drumond Park launched the LOGO board game property five years ago, and there are now 6 games in the series – so Drumond Park has unrivalled access to the logos of hundreds of UK brands and products, many of which have chosen to appear on the app.
Brrraaaaaaaaahhhhhh! Brrraaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh! It is Elephantastic! Doh Nutters is a fast action, hilarious game that has sold well over a million copies! Doh Nutters is suitable for aged four and above for two to four players. It comes with four elephant masks, 12 plastic doughnuts and one playing board. The masks are very well made, good quality plastic with thick stretchy straps. It fits both children and adult well. The elephant trunks are made from soft plastic with ridges that enable the doughnut to stay on or may be not! The playing board is made from a thin cardboard with funny elephant printed.
Have you ever wanted to be a CSI or do you love to watch crime stories and wonder how they solved a crime? One of my Halloween party ideas is to play this Forensics Reconstruction Kit to entertain the older children and adults this Halloween!
Both of my children had been playing Cut The Rope since last year and completed the levels. Ms C especially loves to watch the video clips on the Cut The Rope app on my iPad. When we received the Om Nom Cut the Rope Candy Monster from Vivid Toys and Games, they were so excited! They couldn’t wait to get him out of the box. Om Nom is a friendly candy loving green monster who just loves candy. He is very soft and cuddly and requires 3 x LR44 battery which is included. They are suitable for aged 4 plus. He is very well made but only surface washable.
Something Special is a colourful, fun programme, shown daily on CBeebies, featuring the much loved presenter Justin Fletcher, together with his alter-ego Mr Tumble. The show encourages children to explore the world around them and incorporates the use of Makaton; a recognised form of communication using signs and symbols, as well as rhymes and songs, to encourage and develop language in a fun and exciting way.
Golden Bear will be launching the full new collection of Something Special this autumn which is available to buy at Tesco. The exciting new Mr Tumble toys and accessories, inspired by the hit CBeebies show, are sure to impress and can be seen at this year’s Christmas in July!
Today had been a fun and stressful day. Having to host the Something Special Twitter party game along with UKMumsTV.
Catchphrase is a British game show where contestants have to guess the catch phrases as depicted by the animations on the screen. The shows first aired in the eighties and recently, there is a new series on ITV. If you miss the show, why not download the game? The multi player app was launched recently which allows you to play up to two friends at the same time, while also includes 40 new multi player rounds and 65 new randomised catch phrases.
Before you download the game, it is important you read this! Please make sure that you have a Facebook account otherwise there are limited features to play as a guest. Also Facebook logins might not work if your device is running on iOS5 as Facebook no longer supports older operating systems.
Have you tried balancing a cactus and managed to not get pricked by them? Well Plan Toys have one which is safe for children! This wooden balancing cactus game is fun and challenging. The quality of wood is superb – smooth and very colourful. Both of my children love it. They are unique and so different from the rest of the toys we have.
Memory games are great games for children to play. It improves observational skills and helps to train your brain to use and grow your ability to remember. Cartamundi is the largest global manufacturer and market leader in playing cards and cards for games. They kindly sent us a pack of Visualise Junior for review. It is suitable for 8 years and above for 2 to 6 players.
We are a massive fan of Trunki and have bought a lot of their products like Trunki Ride along, BoostApaks and Paddlepak! For those who do not know Trunki, they make fun, innovative travel gear for families on the go. Now they have launched their first ever app, and it’s completely free for you to download, with no sneaky in app purchases! It’s aimed at children aged 3 to 6 years old and is designed to help with their numeracy and hand-eye coordination, but most importantly, it’s a lot of fun!
