family games

Make Time For Family Fun and Bonding This October with Tips and Games from Mattel-Giveaway #PlayAdvocate

October 26, 2015 by Kathryn 91 Comments

October is one busy month, and making time for connecting with family isn’t always easy. That’s why my family and I have started a weekly game night so that even during the busiest weeks, we can spend an hour or so talking, playing and laughing together. Mattel understands the importance of family time, so the company has five great tips to help your family connect no matter how busy your lives get!

Start Traditions.

It’s never too late to create new family traditions this fall season. One of the best ways to create a tradition that ensures your family is spending quality time together, rather than just being in the same room together, is to play a game everyone will enjoy. Fun and interactive games like Card N Go Seek™ and Bounce-Off™ offer an exciting and engaging game that your family will be excited to play. Try breaking out the same game, or dedicating a game “time” at your next fall family gathering and make it a tradition for the years to come! [Read more…]

Add Excitement to Family Game Night with Great New Games from Spin Master

September 10, 2013 by Kathryn 102 Comments

With all the technology that fills our modern lives, I love finding ways to unplug and connect with my boys. And with both of them now being old enough to understand concepts like taking turns and following rules, one of our favourite ways to do that is with board games.

Spin Master Games have been a hit in our house for a while and recently I received some of the newest games from the company to test out for myself. Zackary and Benjamin were thrilled and couldn’t wait to start playing!

I received Hedbanz Act Up, Logo Party and Boom Boom Balloon to review. Logo Party is one that I’m saving for when my family comes to visit since it’s more of a teen and adult game. But I have to admit; I cannot wait to try it out! The game involved identifying various popular brand logos and I had so much fun even just seeing which logos on the box I could identify.

The fun thing about this game is that there are four different ways to play. Participants can draw the logo, describe it, act it out or slowly reveal a card featuring a picture of the logo. I find the concept of the game fascinating too, since it’s rather interesting to see which logos make the biggest impact on our memories!

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Family Game Night Gets Creative with Morphology and Morphology Junior-Giveaway

October 14, 2012 by Kathryn 144 Comments

While I love classic board games, I also really enjoy discovering new games to play with my boys that let us work our minds and test our imaginations. And so when Morphology Games contacted me about reviewing its two widely acclaimed board games, Morphology and Morphology Junior, I couldn’t resist the chance to see what they would be like.

morphology-game-1 Morphology is essentially a game of charades using objects instead of the human body to act out or build certain words. From colourful rocks to round rubber rings to wooden sticks to string, with a little creativity a person can create almost anything!

My boys and I sat down to play Morphology Junior together one night. The game is generally played in teams and so rather than playing a competitive game, Zackary, Benjamin and I all chose one game piece and moved around the board working together. It took Zackary a while to get the hang of using objects to represent words and so at first, I just picked out cards and created pictures while he guessed what word was being represented. While it was a fun activity for him, it also let him see how objects could be combined to represent something different. [Read more…]

Heat Up Family Game Night with Flash Point: Fire Rescue-Giveaway

April 3, 2012 by Kathryn 61 Comments

I love board games but in our testosterone-filled household a competitive game sometimes leads to grief instead of enjoyment, especially since Zackary is only five and still has trouble sometimes with the fact that he can’t win all the time. That’s why I was immediately intrigued when I heard about Flash Point: Fire Rescue, a new board game from Indie Boards and Cards. Unlike most board games, this game used a cooperative theme that had the players working as a team to win or lose together.

flash point fire rescue box art Now I must say that Flash Point: Fire Rescue is a little complicated at first glance. There are a lot of different pieces and it took me a bit of time to sort them all out and read through the instructions so that I could see how the game worked. But once I did, I saw that the game really consisted of three elements: moving the firemen, spreading the fire and adding victims to the board. I appreciated that the game included instructions for both an easier family version and a more complicated adult version. Even if I had been playing with adults, I think I would have started with the family version first to get the hang of the game.

We started by each picking a firefighter playing piece and choosing a spot outside the building as the firefighter’s starting point. We also added fire and POI tokens to the inside of the house. The POI, or Point of Interest, tokens represent potential trapped victims inside the building. To make the game more interesting, some of the tokens are blank, indicating a “false alarm” while others have faces representing a victim that needs to be saved.

On each turn, a player can use four actions points to take action with his firefighter or save some of his action points for the next turn. Firefighters are able to put out fires, break down walls and rescue victims as they move through the house. After the player uses his firefighter’s action points, it’s time to spread the fire. The game uses two dice of different colours and shapes and each combination of the two dice represents a section of the house. After rolling the dice, the player then puts a fire token on the square. The tokens are double-sided with smoke on one side and fire on another and depending on whether or not the section is already on fire, the reactions of adding the fire to the board range from an increase in flames to a full-out explosion!

flash point fire rescue contents

Finally, the player ends their turn by ensuring that there are still three POI tokens in the house. If any have been removed, the player simply rolls the dice and places a POI token on the corresponding house section. The game is won by rescuing seven victims and lost if four victims are lost to the fire or if the building collapses before the game has been won. It sounded complicated, but with the handy included reference cards to help us remember the rules as we went, it was actually quite easy to play once we began.

Needless to say, getting started with a five-year-old eagerly participating alongside me was a little rocky at first, but I soon got the hang of the game and quickly found myself enthralled. Strategy is a major component of this game since judgements need to be made about whether to put out a fire, save a victim or even open a door. All the actions can have unforeseen consequences when the fire starts to spread and seeing how the game progressed was just fascinating!

Zackary, of course, didn’t really understand all the details of the game, but he did understand the basic concept and he loved working together with me to save the victims. He had so much fun placing the fire and POI tokens on the board at each turn and used his own actions to save victims whenever he could. And of course, since it was just the two of us playing, I could make the game easier for him by changing the rules a little. I loved that there was flexibility worked into the game concept that made it possible for even young children to play.

my boys playing flash point fire rescue

Overall, though, I would recommend this game for about ages eight and up and it would be a great choice for an adult game night. I’m looking forward to practicing a little and then playing the advanced version with my husband. It features a more complex game board, the option of using fire fighting specialists and extra hazards including hotspots and Hazmat.

But the best thing about this game has to be the versatility that’s possible with the rules. We made the game more kid-friendly by adding extra action points for each firefighter and eliminating the possibility of explosions. But there are countless ways to change the instructions and personalize the game to make it fun for anyone! Flash Point: Fire Rescue is available at Amazon.com and other select online retailers and if you’re looking for a unique and high-energy co-operative board game, this is one you need to check out. Whether you’re playing an easy game with the kids or you’re a board game expert, you’ll get plenty of entertainment from Flash Point: Fire Rescue!

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Around the Table Games Family Talk-Review and Giveaway

December 13, 2010 by Kathryn 315 Comments

Holiday Gift for Families

Communication is the cornerstone of every relationship, but communication means so much more than just being able to talk about a problem or share a triumph. The best communication can develop a person’s understanding of another as well as allowing them to share something important about themselves. But in today’s busy world, how can we find time for that kind of deep family conversation?

A new collection of easy-to-use card games from Around the Table Games has the answer, and the products are so versatile that anyone can make time for them. Convenient metal rings hold sets of themed cards with questions designed to get families and friends really talking about almost everything. I couldn’t wait to try out one of the games for myself.

I received the award-winning Family Talk card game to review. The cards are slightly larger than business cards and come on a convenient clip ring that can easily be attached to a bag or purse for easy transport. I read through a few of the questions and immediately realized that they would be the perfect conversation starters for dinner each night. I hung the ring beside the table and told my oldest son that we could read a few of the cards that night.

Zackary was incredibly eager to “answer some questions,” and had barely eaten a bite of his food before he asked me to read a card from the ring. I flipped to the first card and read, “What makes you feel most welcome when you come home?”

Of course, my car-crazy son immediately stated that playing a racing game made him feel the most welcome. My husband felt that seeing the boys waving to him through the window was his best welcoming moment. And I said that giving my family a hug was the nicest way to be welcomed home.

The next card asked us to think about our favorite childhood memory. Zackary said that his best memory was playing with his good friend and next-door neighbor. My husband recalled attending midnight mass on Christmas Eve in his small hometown on the lower north shore of Quebec. And I waxed reminiscent about the days I had spent playing outside with a crowd of friends from sunrise to sunset.

Family Talk had already helped us to have just that, and I had gotten the chance to see into my son’s mind as well as learning about how memorable my husband’s past holidays had been. I had even relived some of my own happy childhood days!

The questions range from introspective to reminiscent to practical. As I sat down one evening with my two sons, Zackary requested a card and I happened to flip to one that read, “If your house caught on fire, how would you escape and where would you meet your family outside?” Coincidentally, my son had been learning about fire safety that week at school and we immediately launched into a long conversation about our emergency plan. Zackary helped us decide that our meeting place would be at the picnic table in our backyard, and that we should get a ladder just in case we couldn’t get down the stairs in a fire.

Family Talk is a great way to start a conversation that everyone can participate in, and the game provides a valuable tool for learning about others as well. I love reading a couple of cards each night at dinner and seeing where the prompts take our conversation. Sometimes, the answers are fairly quick and straightforward, but other times we’ll dwell on a particular topic for the rest of the meal!

Around the Table Games come in themes for other relationships including Buddy Talk, Grandparent Talk and Teen Talk. An Around the Table Games card set would make a great stocking stuffer for parents and grandparents, and the Buddy Talk cards would be a wonderful gift for your best friend. For a fun and easy way to move conversation beyond lighter topics and explore both yourself and your family, check out Family Talk from Around the Table Games today!

Buy It: Around the Table Games is very generously offering readers 20% off their purchases! Use coupon code THANKYOU

Win It: One lucky reader is going to win their choice of any one card game from Around the Table Games

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