Board games are not just for Christmas! They are a great way to spend time together as a family and keep screen time in check. As you can see, board games before bed are a popular choice in my house!
Drumond Park have very kindly donated a three of their latest board games to our school summer raffle of prizes to our school raffle, here’s the latest family fun in board game format:
New Dig In! from Drumond Park (rrp £19.99, for ages 8 to 99!), is a deceptively challenging game that’s an enthralling test of hand/eye co-ordination – against the clock! Players take their turn to frantically sift through the bowl with their fingers to try to find the exact six pieces they need to fill their card… in just 15 seconds flat. This light-hearted, joyful and unique table-top game looks ridiculously simple – but soon proves to be surprisingly challenging, as well as utterly absorbing… just you wait!
Dig In! is set to delight and confound players of all ages – from about 8 to adult. It features a vibrant mix of 128 colourful and beautifully modelled pieces all jumbled up in the Dig In bowl. Easy and fun for kids and adults alike so a great choice for grown-ups looking for after dinner party fun. This game totally engrossing and amazing in its deceptive and addictive simplicity – and keep coming back for more!
Here comes a gleeful, wacky and downright silly game that the whole family will absolutely love! So step aside all – and make way for Drumond Park’s brilliant and hilarious Stoopido (rrp £19.99, for ages 8 to 100)!
The point of this frenetic game is the opposite of what you think – the winner is the person who is the only player left without a full face covered with quirky colourful mis-matched eyes, ears, noses, hats and foreheads! This is a crazy game of seemingly endless combinations of colourful facial parts with brilliantly funny results, which is set to be a big hit with everyone!
Pickin’ Chickens is the latest in a long line of much loved, instant-action table-top games from Drumond Park. Beautifully designed and destined to become a perennial favourite, this lively, fun and supremely tactile game will help young players quickly grasp the concept of taking turns, learning their colours, making decisions and practising memory skills – all while they beaver away to save their precious chicks from that sneaky jumping fox!
There are two levels to the game, one for young chicks and one for older chicks with the aim in both cases to be the first to collect four chickens. In the Young Chicks game the chickens can be any colour, while in the Older Chicks version, they have to be one of each colour – red, yellow, blue and green.
The children sit around the rotating green Field Circle base where twelve chicken coops nestle among the bushes. In the Young Chicks game, the first player gives the Field Circle a good spin. Then when it stops each child picks a chicken coop to look under, and depending on the colour of the chicken revealed, chooses a model chicken of the same colour and puts it on one of the white chicken spaces on their card.
If somebody finds a picture of the Farmer under a coop, they are awarded the Farmer Card – and that’s really good news, because he will protect its holder from losing a chicken when the sneaky jumping fox appears…
Oh, I say … ‘fowl’ play, Mr Fox!
Here he comes now, with a greedy smile on his face, popping up randomly like a jack-in-the-box from his tree trunk lair – and giving everyone a shock! When he appears, each player instantly loses one of his or her chickens – unless they hold the Farmer card – lucky them! Game play continues until someone collects any four model chickens – and is declared the winner.
The only difference in the Older Chicks game is that players use the side of the card which shows the four coloured chickens, and must collect a chicken of each colour. If a player uncovers a chicken of a colour they already have, they can’t take another of the same colour – and play passes to the next player.
And here’s where the tempo of the game speeds up! The older children will be using their own reasoning and memory skills – remembering, for example, where the red of blue chicken they need is – or where the Farmer just might be found.
This simple but highly effective concept has just the right level of thrills and adventure to keep children, from pre-school age upwards, happily occupied and coming back time and again for more. Pickin’ Chickens (rrp £22.99, age 4+, for 2-4 players)
