Fun with Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom

Another one for the Christmas List, We are really not far from the big “C” there is truly no getting away from it!

This time I’m sharing mine and the helpers views on the Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom Lotto Game.

Oh yes, Like many other Pre-schoolers across the land, my Little Harley who is 2 next month is a “Massive” Ben and Holly fan, he loves it!

The other two? well… not really, at almost 9 Alice-Sara loves her Monsters high, Barbie and everything else girlie and the Little man spends his days investigating new Bus routes, building with Lego and discovering his other interests, however since doing the Little helpers both are more inclined to join me and the youngest member of the family in playing a game or two.

So, that’s what we did when we received the Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom Lotto game by Entertainment one ! The game is recommended for children aged 3+ Harley at almost two is a tad young, however as my partner in crime and with lots of prompts he was able to really get involved and had loads of fun doing so. The way I see it is, his engaging learning and taking it in bit by bit, he will get many years to play this on a more independent level.

Product Description

A fun Lotto memory game featuring Ben and Holly plus other favourite characters from the TV show. Holly has mixed up all the things in the little kingdom whilst practising her magic spells. Can you help her put them all back where they belong?

Our thoughts

The concept of the game is rather simple, yet extremely fun for the little ones. It’s a great way to help aid the development of your child’s memory skills as-well as that of their concentration and thinking style.

Memory games are also really great for children with autism or those with additional needs as I’ve demonstrated in past post when reviewing a range of games with Little man.

This isn’t your typical memory game! Basically each player selects a card and looks to see if it features any of the featured images on their lotto card, whoever fills their six game slots on their lotto card first is the winner.

Harley would select the card and pass it to me. If we had the featured item I would cheer and clap, this got him very excited causing him to cheer even when our opponents found one of their cards, bless him, he’ll soon get out of that, I’m sure 🙂

The older two found it quite easy but really enjoyable especially my eldest with Aspergers. His been found head first in the toy box digging out the game a number of times! I even discovered him playing it alone last week, um… not to sure how that worked but I left him happily to it!

Have to give this one a five star*****

If not for the fantastic valule for money but the endless family fun it’s provided!

Would make an excellent gift for any little Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom fan

Plus it’s a Great addition to the toy box

Ben & Holly’s Little Kingdom Lotto Game is aimed at Children 3 years plus, it’s for 2-4 players and is priced at an amazing £7.99 RRP (in my opinion a little price for a great game) It’s very well made and if looked after will last for many games over many years.

Fancy a game of Lotto? Ben and Holly’s Little kingdom Game is available form all good retailers so… make sure you get yours this Christmas.

I’ve uncovered it for you at Debenhams in the Sale for the awesome price of £5.60

PLUS THEY HAVE FREE P&P FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY!

It’s too much of a deal to ignore isn’t it? Click HERE for the Debenhams website to get yours.

Ben and Holly fans can now head over to the official Facebook page, why not check it out by clicking HERE

Thanks to Entertainment one for sending me a copy of the game for the purpose of this review.

Related articles

• Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom Puzzle Tin up for review (mostlyyummymummy.com)
• Ben and Holly’s little kingdom giveaway (aspergersinfo.wordpress.com)
• The Sophistication of Elves and Fairies (theprogenitor.wordpress.com)

It’s all fun and games with Ka’lide

Another day, another Santa’s little helpers and blog-match mission.

The guys at blog-match have matched us to the guys at imagination games, who sent us the game Ka’lide.

AIM OF THE GAME:

Score points by flicking, bumping and sliding your magnetic pucks onto you’re scoring side of the game mat!

WHAT YOU GET!

One large mat

Magnetic pucks

Note: You will additionally require a pen and paper (not included) to record the scores.

SET UP AND ORDER OF PLAY:

Set up in a room that has lots of space being careful to remove any breakable items away from the playing area.

Establish who’s first by engaging in a “Flick Off”

Closet to 200 point circle wins the “flick off” and therefore goes first.

MAIN GAME:

Each player sits at either end of the playing mat facing one another. Both ends of the mat are colour coded red or yellow. Each player has a total of six pucks each and take it in turns to carefully flick pucks across the mat aiming for the points circles (highest being 200)

IMPORTANT RULES:

If a player overshoots it becomes a dead puck and must be left where they have fallen to the end of the round.

A player can knock or magnetically push another puck into the scoring zone.

For these reasons scores should only be recorded at the end of each round.

Three rounds make up one game of Ka’lide.

WHO PLAYED?

Here comes a heart attack moment, Little man and his sister, my daughter Alice, actually played this game together. They just about managed it without actually killing one another.

VERDICT:

**** We award 4 stars to the imagination game Ka’lide

LAST THOUGHTS:

Ka’lide is very entertaining and is worth adding to your Christmas list.

The game is good at helping aid the development of motor co-ordination as-well as fine motor skills, concentration and hand-eye co-ordination.

The children engaged in a little bickering, but hay what’s new?

As mentioned before Little man tends to be overly controlling a symptom of his Asperger’s syndrome. When his sister scored he found it quite hard to take, with the lack of control over the game and the fact his a sore losers did prove difficult some of the time (though I guess his sisters slight smirk doesn’t help either)!

Over all a fabulous game.

Give it a go and have some fun.

Note: If more than two players are desired this can be done via a knock out game or a team game, full instructions for this are given in the instruction booklet provided with your game.: 

Imagination games: Ka’lide at Amazon

Age 8+ £19.99 RRP 

Related articles

• Geek Kids : Ka’lide Magnetic Action Game (thinkgeek.com)

Let’s play a little Dotto

I love reviewing board games as for me they’re a way of encouraging social interaction and having a child on the autism spectrum, makes that an important factor for me.

As mentioned in my last review of the board game ‘Faqir’, blog-match successful teamed us up with the guys at Tactic Games. Not only was we sent Faqir but also the game ‘Dotto’ in which I’d like to share with you all today.

DOTTO

Dotto is a dice game that requires luck, skill and speed! Race against the clock to match the sequence on the card to the positioning of the coloured dice on the board, the only problem is the timer (supplied) goes of randomly meaning you have to be super quick the entire time.

Warning… Beware not to pick up the “Miss a turn” card and watch out for the reverse card, that will completely reverse the order of play.

WHAT’S IN THE BOX:

Game board

10 coloured dice

Timer

55 pattern cards

15 tokens

pouch for storing dice, cards and tokens

Rules/instructions

I’m a little confused as to why they didn’t just use the card that was popped out the board allowing room for the dice, to be used as the tokens as these no longer have any use.

WHO’S IT FOR AND HOW MANY PLAYERS:

Ages 6+

2-5 players

PUTTING DOTTO THROUGH IT’S PACES

“I absolutely loved it!”

What a big kid I am. I’m really competitive and give no chances, not even to my children. I played the game with both Little man and his sister, ‘Alice-Sara’ It was originally just the two of them but only five minutes in, it was turning into a game of war so I intervened.

My daughter gave up half way through and I almost lost Little man a few times when he got the total hump when I was leading and also through frustration, convinced the timer was plotting against him, (I do admit that the unlucky little bugger seemed to always get the shortest amount of time to copy and build his pattern sequence).

Little man does have a range of difficulties that come down to his inability in doing things in sequence unless there are visual aids to assist him! Luckily with this game you get just that in the patterned coloured cards. The timer was a different story altogether. He hates having to rush things, plus the fact he had no control over how long it would be before the buzzer went off, drove him loopy!

Regardless of these factors he stuck with it, giving all he had which was awesome.

Practise would clearly help to better develop a child with autism’s sequencing skills and their ability to deal with the unexpected (buzzer).

Alice gave a big fat no stars score (through ignore this she didn’t even play and I think that’s properly why.

Little man gave it a 3 stars *** where I gave it the full ***** five stars it deserved.

Note: The timer takes three AAA batteries (not included) and you will require the use of a small screwdriver so worth having one to hand.

WHERE TO BUY:

Get Dotto for £14.99 at Amazon

and a variety of other toy providers

Related articles

• Alice Kicks some butt! (aspergersinfo.wordpress.com)

Alice Kicks some butt!

Blog-Match the brilliant peeps that match bloggers with brands have paired us with the fantastic Tactic games.

 Tactic sent us two board games to review, Faqir and Dotto (which will follow in another post)

 So, what’s it normally like playing board games with two very competitive children, one who is rule band and throws an almighty strop when he loses?

A nightmare that’s what it is!

 Five minutes in and all hell broke loose. 

 Now, I should state If it was just me and the little man then his fine, he just can’t play alongside his sister unless his in control and things are going his way! Not easy to put this into practice when playing a board game.

 Later that evening Little man went out with his father and I took Alice and the youngest around my mothers house and decided to bring the game and ask my younger sister and her boyfriend to play the game with Alice. There was no point me even trying with my toddler about.

 Lucky my sisters boyfriend said he would give it a go and with much excitement Alice sat down to face her opponent.

 Inside the box

 On opening Faqir we found a board with lots of hole, 28 brightly coloured plastic cones, 24 faqir cards, 4 Faqir dressing rooms and a handy pouch to store cards and cones. 

 What each player requires

 Each player has a certain number of cards depending on how many are playing.

Each player has a dressing table in which they place one of their cards behind.

Lastly

Each player is given a set of cones, there are 4 different colours to choose from.

 Aim of the game!

 Players must place their first card behind they’re dressing table, leaving it only partially visible to their opponent.  Each card has a number of holes (like what you get if you hole punch paper) the holes make up a pattern. The players will take it in turns with the youngest going first (Yep it’s in the rules) each must make the same pattern on their card on the board. This is done by placing the supplied cones (aka nails, into the holes on the board) Once the pattern is complete and the players card can be placed on top of the nails avoiding injury and a nasty anti-tetanus jab 🙂 they move on to another card. Once all your cards have gone you have a winner.  

Piece of cake right!

No, not exactly it isn’t! You see, as mentioned above each players card is partially exposed to its opponent(s) resulting in part of the pattern being revealed. This may only be one or two holes but still it gives players a clue to their opponents movements allowing them to try and block you. 

 The contest

On the left we have Aaron, sister’s boyfriend aged 18 years

On the right we have Alice-Sara ten years his senior at just 8yrs

How is this even fair?

 Does Aaron have the ability to easily beat his younger opponent with his ability to think outside the box?

 No way, this is my daughter we are talking about!

Competitive should be her middle name.

 Jammy dodger pulled it off.

Whoop Whoop

That’s my girl

Alice scores it top marks ***** 5 star

Where Aaron gave it a lower ***  3 star… um I wonder why?

I later played this with little man and I think its brilliant for an older child with Aspergers as It improves non verbal reasoning skills and helps the child look beyond what he thinks he see. 

Well, Little man done well and I just bet him right at the end but it was close, very, very close!

Faqir by Tactic Games

Age 7+

2-4 players per game

Around 30 minute game time per round.

 Amazon currently stock this and I’ve checked and the good news is they have six in stock for £18.99 

Amazon

Visit the Tactic website for more information

http://www.tactic.net/