Review – Orchard Toys Big Police Car Puzzle

The Big Police Car Puzzle from Orchard Toys is the latest puzzle in the toddlers toy box.

He happened to be about when this was delivered and once he saw what was in the box his face lit up with excitement. He loves anything to do with the police and recently got an electric police bike and a uniform to match so the “Police Car Puzzle” has become one of his favourites.

The Puzzle has 36 pieces and these pieces are big and chunky for little fingers. The image itself is bold and fun. Its highly glossy and so far we have had not one peeling corner.

Harley is 3 and therefore needed a little help even though he was very bossy and determined to do it alone.

Its a nice activity to do together and really helps the development of Harley’s fine motor skills.

We love the puzzle. Like all Orchards toys games and puzzles its educational yet loads of fun at the same time.

The Big Police Car Puzzle can be brought for £9.95 online at Orchard Toys.

Orchard Toys New Monster Catcher Review and Competition

We love Orchard toys, they are a brand who symbolise the importance of learning but also the importance of having fun! They have this talent when it comes to designing games and puzzles that are both educational yet fun to play.

Earlier this year little man along with some of his classmates at his special school for children on the autism spectrum, reviewed a couple of games from the Orchard toys range.This review did a fab job at highlighting the importance of learning through play and all the children involved had a great time testing the games.

So, I was delighted when the guys at Orchard Toys sent us one of their newest game releases, ‘Monster Catcher‘.

The game is targeted at children aged 3 to 8 years, and although Harley is not 3 in-till the beginning of December I figured his big sister Alice-Sara could show him the ropes of play, which she was more than happy to do.

Packaging:
This game comes in a nice strong but compact box for good easy storage.

Game contents:
20 monster head cards
20 monster feet cards
6 full net cards
4 empty net cards
Six monster Cachar cards

There is a total of 56 cards altogether. Cards are strong and durable so will last the test of time I’m sure.

As mentioned monster Catcher is one of Orchard Toys newest releases, so I had no idea what others thought of the game and knew very little about it up In-till it arrived. Believe it or not, I also like to read reviews before purchasing products as well as reviewing products myself.

Setting up the game proved a bit of a mission as the toddler insisted on constantly grabbing a hold of the cards and doing a runner.

Finally, once the initial excitement had settled down a little we were then ready to go catch some monsters.

The Object of the game is for each player to match the coloured monsters feet to that of the correct monsters head all while avoiding the monster catcher who will swipe all the players cards leaving them with none. The player with the most complete monsters at the time the monster catcher is completed, wins!

It’s a simple enough concept, though smaller children may need some help along the way.

What’s more this is a game that is so easily adapted. Kids seem to do this without even thinking about it! Harley asked to play with the game yesterday but he didn’t want anyone else disturbing him, preferring to play alone. This is actually a game for 2-4 players, So, play alone is impossible right? Not for Harley it seems. This little clever clogs placed all the cards facing upwards and one by one he matched up all the monsters, placing the catcher cards etc to one side.

I love how he adapted it to work for him, treating it as a puzzle as opposed to a game.

Monster Catcher has done well to help harley develop his colour recognition as-well as his matching and pairing skills. He used a lot of logic when trying to place the pieces together correctly (not only match the colours but ensuring he had placed them the correct way around, etc).

£7.50 is fabulous value and a really reasonable price to pay for this game.
Monster Catcher will be sure to provide children with years of fun while teaching them a thing or two. The educational benefits to this game make it seem a very little price to pay.

Educational information
• Develops matching and counting skills
• Encourages social interaction
• Develops instruction following and turn taking
• Links to National Curriculum and Early Learning Goals.

Orchard toys have been great and offered me another Monster Catcher for one of my readers to win right here on the blog. Here’s how….

Compulsory action: Leave a blog comment below telling me your child’s favourite board game.

All comments should be left with a means of contact (twitter or email).

You can earn additional entries by doing any of the following….

Tweet: “I want to win Monster Catcher with @clairelouise82 and @OrchardToys” comment to let me know who you are on twitter.

Subscribe via my rss reader (top of the sidebar) comment to tell me the name or email u are subscribed under.

Follow my sister blog Mummy of many talents then comment below to tell me the name you follow as.

Follow me on pinterest then comment to say who you are below.

Use any of the share buttons below commenting to tell me which ones (email exempt)

Competition will close on the 25th September 2012 at midnight.

Terms and conditions: UK only please, all comments should be left with twitter or email contact. Prize drawn a random, winner has 72 hours following winning notification to claim prize. Prize will be sent directly from PR/Brand. Winners name maybe published on blog with winning notification if author decides.

Just another Britmums Live Meet and Greet

Yes, typical Claire Louise, I have been meaning to get my backside in gear and post this “Meet & Greet” for the best part of a few weeks!

Although I love blogging a little too much, this also highlights my struggle to get a round to all them little things, due to my sometimes bonkers existence as a mum (yes… kids can be demanding, especially those on the autism spectrum, as well as those under 3 with a host of questions starting with the word, “WHY”)!

Never mind, better late than never, a term I’m most fond off, I must admit!

Well, given I’m writing a Britmums Live “Meet and Greet” you have likely established already that, Yay… I’m going to Britmums Live 2012, and boy am I excited *stops typing and engages in a brief few seconds of childish behaviour by jumping up and down on a freshly made bed*

So, before I roll off them likes and dislikes which I’m pretty confident you don’t give a hoot about anyway, I should just thank my wonderful Britmums Live Sponsor, “Orchard Toys” for making my attendance possible 🙂 *join me in giving the sponsor a big hand please!*

Obviously I write the blog A boy with Aspergers (which I’m guessing you may have worked out, given you’re here now)! What you may not know, is, I also write the blog Mummy of many talents (my newest project, launched Jan 2012)! I have 3 beautiful children one who has Aspergers syndrome and special educational needs.

Here it goes, enjoy my meet and Greet!

This is me (right) with the lovely Lou from Bloggomy on my left.Twitter Handle: @clairelouise82

Height: 5,7

Hair Colour: Lightish Blonde (Normally with darker blonde roots)

Eye Colour: Blue (with Black bags)

Likes… Creating awareness for autism, education law, Blogging, Twitter, Pinterest, Britmums, arts and crafts, shoes (the more the better) a full makeup bag, new shiny things, vintage, cupcakes, money (again the more the better) being a mum, dancing, comping (recent hobby and loving it), winning (who doesn’t) Italy, Greece, pretty things, jewellery, pasta, calorie laden puddings (but not their effect on the hips, bum and tum) shopping, organising, stationary items (how sad) bootsales, eBay, my Facebook page, BBC3 Being human, Eastenders, horrors, fashion, Karen Milan, reading (true life only) Lee Evans, creating change, festivals, healthy debates… goodness me, I best stop there!

Dislikes… School gate mums, bitching, ignorance, snottiness, weight gain, David Cameron, British justice system, eggs, mummy blogger bashing, time wasters, getting old, OCD, discrimination, meltdowns, conflict, Reading fiction (with a few exceptions) bullying, abusive relationships, stealing (including online content) Voting comps on Facebook, wordpress no JavaScript rules, spam, poor losers, dirty old men, LEAs (nearly always), injustice, weakness, Only way is Essex, heartbreak, debt collectors, South park, hypocrites …

Yes, I guess I could go on, though better to have more likes than dislikes 🙂

Well, if after all that rambling you fancy tracking me down at Britmums Live this June 2012, then please do 🙂 I’ll be the one wandering around with a huge smile on my face, not knowing what to do with myself as a result of being anything other than a mummy for a whole 2 days!

Oh, and if you’re staying at the Travelodge on the Friday be sure to wave a hand and agree to come drinking with me *bad Claire Louise*

To join in with the Britmums Live 2012 Meet & Greet, or discover even more bloggers meeting and greeting, be sure to pop over and check out the linky host Stepford Wifey

No shameful begging but if you would like to nominate A boy with Aspergers for a BiB award, please consider the blog for the category “Change” Just click Here! Thank you.

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• NB: I’ve left Britmums (mammasaurus.co.uk)
• Win Orchard Toys New Teddy Bear Game (aspergersinfo.wordpress.com)

Win Orchard Toys New Teddy Bear Game

My fab Britmums Live sponsor Orchard Toys are giving my blog readers the chance to win one of their awesome newly launched game, and what a great game it is!

 Teddy Bear Game is aimed at children between the ages of 3-6 years old and can be played in groups of 2-4 players. This is a fun but educational game , helping your little one’s to master the skill of counting and colour recognition.

 Children will have great fun as they race to collect and count the teddy bear cards before the puzzle is complete. 

 I got a peek at this game pre-launch, at the fabulous 2012 London Toy Fair last month and was really impressed with how simple, yet fun the game was (despite it being demonstrated by a fully grown man as opposed to a toddler)!

 It’s very durable and great on the eye, with a brilliant design and the use of some visually inviting colours. With links to Early Learning Goals and National Curriculum maths key stage 1, its certain to not only keep the kids fully entertained but also teach them a thing or two!  

 So… fancy trying to win your little one’s a Teddy Bear Game in our latest competition? Here’s how!

 subscribe to the blog via “Feedburner” then comment to let me know you have subscribed as well as telling me what educational games you like to play with your children?

 For extra entries you can… Tweet, “I want to win a Teddy Bear Game with @clairelouise82 & @orchardtoys http://wp.me/plAS9-18g”

 Follow Orchard Toys on twitter

 Follow me on twitter

 Subscribe to my sister blog “Mummy of many talents”

 Subscribe to my Youtube channel

 Follow me on Pinterest 

 Use any of the share buttons within this post (One additional entry for each used)

 PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT FOR EVERY ACTION YOU MAKE OR EXTRA ENTRIES WILL NOT BE VALID!

 NO EXTRA ENTRY IS VALID IN-TILL THE COMPULSORY ACTION HAS BEEN COMPLETED

 Email or Twitter handle must be supplied with comments to valid all entries.

 Competition is open to those in the UK only, and will close at midnight on the 15th March 2012

 Good Luck

 T&C

Open to those in the UK only, all entries are checked and verified before winner is randomly selected. All rules must be followed and those entry must leave a valid email address or twitter handle so they are easily contacted in the event they win. All that enter need to complete the compulsory action before submitting any extra entries. Winner details will be passed to the prize provider in-order to dispatch the prize. Winner must respond to winning notification within 72 hours from time of draw or may risk losing the prize due to another winner being drawn.  

ThePrizeFinder – UK Competitions

Little man’s special school put Orchard toys to the test

This post is both to test the benefits of educational games by Orchard toys for children with autism when played with in an educational setting and also to look at how children on the autism spectrum play alongside one another, the development of social interaction and social skills when playing games aimed at improving such skills.

Orchard Toys are one of the UK’s leading brands in educational toys, with their games and puzzles being used within nurseries, schools and of course the home! These are games that seek to promote educational progression as-well as good old fashion fun. I’ve been incredibly lucky to obtain such a fine and well-regarded brand as my Britmums Live 2012 sponsor which is fantastic as this also means I will hopefully be able to help them on their mission!

Orchard Toys told me that they wanted to gain a better understanding and clear insight into how our children with additional needs, especially those with autism and special educational needs, play and learn, what skills they benefit from and what us parents look for when buying our children educational games. This would allow the brand a way of knowing which of their toys will benefit such children while allowing them to take any findings into consideration when creating and launching new product lines.

I visited the brand online and browsed their games section, selecting a couple of games to test.

I then had an idea and went about contacting my sons independent special school (a specialist school for children on the autism spectrum aged between 5-16 years) My idea was to donate the games to the school in exchange for some feedback on how the children found them, therefore gaining the opinions of more than one child on the autism spectrum. Instead a small group of children all with their own abilities and interest could test these games (all children are different including those children with autism, no two children on the spectrum are the same regardless of the traits they may share)! I would also gain the opinion of the teacher, a professional in education and one that understood children with autism and special educational needs. At home Little man would be forced to play this with his “typical” peers or siblings which would normally result in a war. This way I’d be able to also discover just how far my own child had come (a child taught in isolation with no peer interaction for over a year) and how he now interacts with children with similar thinking styles and difficulties with in areas of social skills interaction & communication.

Luckily, Baston House School accepted and loved the idea!

THE GAMES I CHOSE AND WHY!

What a performance, a game aimed at children between the ages of 5-12 (though this is great for the whole family including those older children) and can be played in groups of 2-6 players. My reasons for the selection are as follows: Good links to the National Curriculum in English and Maths, the encouragement in both personal and social skills and the developmental benefits it offered in terms of language and communication skills.

Players must act out certain actions, example… pretending to be a monkey, make the noise of a firework or even try to wiggle their ears. If the others fail to guess before the time runs out the child then uses a magical decoder to reveal a forfeit.

The second game I chose, was ‘What’s Rubbish’ designed for 2-4 players and aimed at ages 5-10. Little man’s class consists of children with mixed abilities and of the ages 9-11 years old. With only around 5-8 children per class, so I wasn’t worried about those older children of 11 (like my little man) as the age recommendation wouldn’t be an issue. This game again has links to the National Curriculum in the area of maths! Other benefits developmental benefits are, strategic thinking and again the development of both personal and social skills.

Little man had told me that he had learnt quite a lot about recycling at his school, so I thought this would make a great educational tool for the classroom. The game requires players to collect different types of rubbish to put into the recycling bin, being careful to avoid litterbugs.

Once the games arrived I sent them into school with Little man and here’s how it went!

THE FEEDBACK

What a Performance: The Class teacher ‘Miss Bell’ stated that the game created a lot of interest amongst the children and as I suspected it was a huge hit.

The class teacher described ‘What a performance’ as a great game & learning tool for children on the autism spectrum, she noted that the games requirement for a child to either act or mime while the remaining children guess what it is they are doing, helps the development of theory of mind, (understanding that other people have different thoughts and feeling) an important life skill for these children. The children worked in groups of 4 for around half an hour. The teacher empathised that although this may not seem long, it is however, probably the longest time the children have played a game as a group… Result!

The fact that Little man actually managed to remain engaged for this length of time given that he was in a group of 4, is such a positive for us! Before starting this school, he was taught in isolation away from his peers for almost a year, so this is a huge step in procress for both Little man and the extended family.

Lastly, it was reported that all the boys really loved the magical decoding feature that reveals the secret message on the back of the cards. It sounds as if it was definitely a great feature that helped keep the boys engaged in the game.

The children played the second game ‘What’s rubbish’ on a different day as to play both together would have been far too much for them. The teacher noted that although this is a very good game, the children found this game slightly more complicated than the first. It was noted how it took quite a few reads and one really interested child to understand it, to be able to play! It was noted that in actual fact, it was my son, Little man who was one of the first to lose interest (which isn’t surprising given it takes a lot to engage him if it’s not transport or Lego related). It’s very common for children on the spectrum to have special interest and therefore engage little in other activities.

Little man said it was more complicated as it required him to remember too much information at one time (again this is a common difficulty amongst children on the spectrum). However this game could become something of a valuable resource for improving such skills as these.

The teacher finished by stating that the format of both games was really good, really colourful and easy to read. The teacher noted how she had used Orchard Toys within her last school and remained impressed.

So, all in all, I think that by donating the games to the school, we managed to gather some great information on the benefits of Orchard Toys when used as an educational resource in the classroom.

The children clearly enjoyed the first game more than the second which makes “What a Performance’ our winner, though we think that both are fantastic.

Visit Orchard Toys for even more games and puzzles for all ages and abilities

Lastly, a huge thank you to Orchard Toys for supplying these lovely games and both the children and teachers at the school for taking part.

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Orchard Toys Sponsors A Boy With Aspergers For BritMums Live 2012

Today I’m here to share some exciting news, A Boy with Aspergers has struck up a sponsorship with a fantastic brand, enabling me to attend the parent blogging conference of the year, BritMums Live 2012.

A few days after having post my initial request I was approached and offered a chance to team up with a brand that I feel really suits the blog.

So… who is it?

My sponsor for this years BritMums Live is the fabulous…

So… Why is the right sponsor for the blog?

Orchard Toys, are the leading manufacturer of educational puzzles, games and books for children between the ages of 18 months and 12 years. The brand which was founded in 1971 has a great reputation for its customer care and its toy production which aims to bring both fun & educational play to the lives of children everywhere! What’s more, Orchard Toys are interested in what interests all children, including those with special educational needs and it is therefore hoped that by sponsoring A boy with Aspergers we can help them find out!

Anyone who reads this blog will know I’m big on toys that promote educational play, there is nothing better than a toy that brings great enjoyment to a child’s day as it teaches them new and important skills along the way.
There are so many families with children on the autism spectrum, many with special educational needs, that visit this blog all looking for ideas and inspiration on what to buy a child with autism… as I’ve stated before, games and puzzles can be a great starting block, if the right products are chosen, such items can help not only improve a child’s academic performance, but social and life skills, such as independence skills, something that children with AS seem to acquire that bit later than the “typical” child. Orchard Toys have a great selection of toys that suit children of all needs and abilities and some could help improve some vital skills for the child on the autism spectrum.

I’m hoping that over time our feed back given while working with Orchard toys can be used in the most productive way. This brand creates new products from its own designs, then all products undergo extensive testing in homes, schools and nurseries across the UK! This is to make sure they are educational sound, aimed at the right age group and importantly fun to play with. I love how they are actively seeking out feedback from those with children who have additional needs to ensure their toys are fun for all.

When I spoke to the teams lovely head of PR, I really appreciated her genuine interest in my blog, children and of course Little man. At one point in the conversation, I stated how Little man has the problem, that he comes across as socially inappropriate when he tries to socialise with others! Lynda (head of PR) responded by stating that it shouldn’t be his problem, it’s the problem of society as they fail to understand him and they need to be better educated about autism. Right there and then I wondered if maybe she was the parent of a child like mine, the fact she wasn’t just blow me away even more, making me more keen to work with the brand! I only wish more people could be more like Lynda… Non judgemental with a genuine interest in those that are seen to be different.

I feel honoured, thrilled and fortunate that such a great brand with good values and ideas, have asked to be my sponsor and I look forward to working with them over the coming months.

As for BritMums Live… I just can’t wait 🙂 If you’re a parent, mummy blogger and your undecided if BritMums Live is right for you, I’d suggest checking out the site. There will be many awesome speakers on the day such as top bloggers, authors, photographers (even Cherry Healey, Ruby Wax and Sarah Brown form part of the awesome line up). There are workshops (plenty off them) aimed at both new and advanced bloggers. The two-day event will host an awards bash, provide time to mingle and get to know other bloggers (or maybe just meet up with one’s you know already) plus it’s your chance to meet with some great brands too.

To find out more about BritMums Live Click Here
If you want to check out my lovely new sponsor, which I highly recommend you do, just Click Here

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