Cuisine & Culture the Chinese Family Way
Zavvi has kindly given me the Rise of the Guardians game for the PS3 to do a review. Besides PS3 console games they also sell DVD, toys, gifts and others. If you have not heard about or watched Rise of the Guardians, this is a little background information: “Rise of the Guardians” is about iconic characters from childhood legends brought to life to save the innocence of youth from an evil creature named Pitch.
Recently, I won a Twitter competition from Green Board Games and they sent me this Alphabet Squiggle on-the-go for my children. This is the travel size edition. It helps to introduce letters to children in a fun and clever new way. Children will learn and improve letter recognition, increase their creativity and even strengthen their vocabulary.
When I was growing up, I owned a Nintendo Game Boy. Swapping games and comparing high scores with friends was all the rage in an ultimate attempt for one-upmanship. As I recount the games I had and played with, I recall many that provided a lot of fun but none that provided development or educational content.
Brainbox Games My First Sound Snap is a unique deck of cards that lets you play two family favourites, Snap and Pairs using early-years reading strategies. It is suitable for aged 4+ and comes in 52 full colour playing cards plus 3 rules cards. BrainBox kindly give us pack one and pack two to do this review. Pack one uses letters A – M and pack two uses letters N – Z. It feels like the cards are coated which should make them more durable and water resistant. This is obviously really useful with children!
We have previously reviewed BrainBox My First Picture and we really loved it. It is simple yet fun to play and exercises those little brain cells! BrainBox has also kindly given us ABC for review. It is suitable for four years and above for one or more players. BrainBox ABC is full to the brim with fantastic images to help children recognise objects beginning with each letter of the alphabet as well as the more common blends.
The object of the game is to study a card for 10 seconds and then answer a question based on the roll of a dice. If the question is answered correctly, the card is kept and the person with the most number of cards after 5 or 10 minutes is the winner. This simple concept can be played by all ages and in large groups as well as a 1 person game.
As a PlayFest Official Toy Tester 2013, I got to test Haba Pizzeria Allegro Soft Food and made a video review. Haba Pizzeria Allegro Soft Food is a tasty fun playset for 1 – 4 quick bakers aged 3 to 6 years old. It comes in a rectangular box where the bottom part of the box is a pizza oven. It is made from thick cardboard. The ingredients are made from felt and velour.
I can not believe that we are in April and we are still wrapped up with our winter coats. Luckily the sun came out to play and our trampoline had a bit of love from the children.
The AppToyz AppControl is a portable controller that can be clipped to your keyring. You simply place it on your touchscreen device and the rubber material ensures it doesn’t slide around. It is small, light, soft and easy to stick on. I tried this with the Samsung Galaxy S3 where there are three games available from the Google Play Store.
We were so lucky to win a pair of Yonex All England Open Badminton Championship 2013 Final tickets by entering ActivInstinct Facebook competition. Badminton is my husband’s favourite sport and he was so pleased that we won these tickets worth, more than £30.
I can’t believe that I had won this Metal Gear Rising Party pack through Comeround’s twitter competition to host this weekend. I have received the following to host this party:
Relive the greatest adventure of our time with the Lord of the Rings Top Trumps Collectors’ Tin. Inside this stunningly detailed Eye of Sauron tin houses two exclusive Top Trumps packs: 30 Heroes of Middle-Earth and 30 of Sauron’s Forces.
Three Little Pigs is always one of my favourite children’s stories and Disney songs. It features three pigs who build three houses of different materials. A big bad wolf is able to blow down the first two pigs’ houses, made of straw and sticks, but is unable to blow down the third pig’s house, made of bricks.
Jungle Express is a new jigsaw puzzle due to launch in August 2012 by Orchard Toys. This puzzle gives you the opportunity to talk with your child about what’s happening in the picture, while developing their observational skills. It is suitable for age 3 – 6 years old.
This is the latest educational game by Orchard Toys launched in August 2012. Monster Catcher emphasises on collecting and losing monsters in this fun, colour matching game. How many monsters can you catch?
Where’s My Cupcake? by Orchard Toys is an educational game that emphasises table manners and learning to share while collecting and matching your cupcakes. It contains 10 different types of delicious cupcake cards (total of 40 cards), 4 different colour plate boards, 1 recipe board and 1 instruction leaflets. It is suitable for age 3+ for 2 – 4 players.
The objective is to collect the most cupcake cards on your plate board. When you are unable to match any face up cards on the table or your own pile, the player will check on other players’ plate board. If the other player already has it, you will ask that player.
