In the Mellow household we absolutely love playing games together in the evenings and at the weekend - it always makes a welcome change from TV and Holly is now able to join in with some of the more simple-to-follow family games. University Games are experts when it comes to fun family games and they asked us to put a couple of their new games to the test - Bunny Jump
and Don't Rock The Boat
.
Don't Rock the Boat is recommended for children from age 5 upwards but Holly is 2 and, although it is chaos when she plays with us, it is still brilliant fun. The aim of the game is to balance as many pirate penguins on the wibbly wobbly pirate ship as you can without tipping it over and throwing the penguins overboard.
Don't Rock the Boat is so simple and that's what keeps you coming back to it. That simple challenge of not wanting to be defeated by a plastic boat! Lara gets very competitive when she plays it and always wants to place her penguins in the most precarious of spots. She is also awesomely good at it and has really grasped the idea of balance (a KS1 maths challenge!). I would say that the boat could do with a few more nooks and crannies on which to balance things because most of the penguins end up clumped together on the deck.
For any pirate-mad kids like Holly and Lara, I think Don't Rock the Boat would make a brilliant Christmas gift that can bring the whole family together - it is suitable for between 2 and 4 players. The game costs around £14.99 and is available from at Toymaster, Argos, Toys R Us, Amazon, and Smyths.
and Don't Rock The Boat
.Don't Rock the Boat is recommended for children from age 5 upwards but Holly is 2 and, although it is chaos when she plays with us, it is still brilliant fun. The aim of the game is to balance as many pirate penguins on the wibbly wobbly pirate ship as you can without tipping it over and throwing the penguins overboard.
Don't Rock the Boat is so simple and that's what keeps you coming back to it. That simple challenge of not wanting to be defeated by a plastic boat! Lara gets very competitive when she plays it and always wants to place her penguins in the most precarious of spots. She is also awesomely good at it and has really grasped the idea of balance (a KS1 maths challenge!). I would say that the boat could do with a few more nooks and crannies on which to balance things because most of the penguins end up clumped together on the deck.
For any pirate-mad kids like Holly and Lara, I think Don't Rock the Boat would make a brilliant Christmas gift that can bring the whole family together - it is suitable for between 2 and 4 players. The game costs around £14.99 and is available from at Toymaster, Argos, Toys R Us, Amazon, and Smyths.
Another new family pastime is Bunny Jump! This is a fast game that usually results in lots of shouting, spin the wheel to find out how many carrots you can try and steal from the field... pull them out one by one and see if that cheeky rabbit catches you.
The mini carrots have to be pulled quite firmly from the field but if the bunny rabbit twangs into the air as you are pulling, everyone has to dash to try and catch him because you can earn extra carrots that way. Sometimes the bunny jumps up after a matter of seconds, other times it can be a good few minutes before he jumps so he really keeps everyone in suspense.
Both Holly and Lara absolutely LOVE this game and they fall about in hysterical laughter every time the bunny jumps. They like the feeling of ownership of having collected their own carrots.
Bunny Jump is suitable for 2 to 4 players and I can really imagine this is a perfect way to spend Christmas day together as a family. My girls have played Bunny Jump pretty much every day for the past fortnight, so the novelty factor doesn't wear off! Bunny Jump costs around £19.99 and is available from Toys R Us, Hamleys, Argos, Smyths, Amazon and Toymaster.
