Toy Reviews

Christmas is not complete without family board games! This year in the run up to the festive season, we’ve been trying out some great card games from Ginger Fox which would make ideal stocking fillers, and are also great to bring along when visiting wider family over the Christmas season.

Here’s a run down of the games we have been trying out…

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Tenable is a fun family board game, based on the popular ITV game show Tenable, where players have the opportunity to win up to 125,000 pounds. The show is hosted by Warwick Davis and has been running on ITV for three years, since 2016. Now with the Tenable board game, you can re-live the action and try out your own knowledge at home to see which of your family members will be the champion, and who will be ‘terrible at tenable’!

We were sent the Tenable board game to review, via the Asmodee Blogger Board Game Club and have enjoyed playing it together with the kids. The Tenable game is recommended as age 10+ but we found when playing as a family group that younger children are able to take part quite easily, you may just need to be selective on some of the topics to give them a better chance if some of the topics are beyond their knowledge base.

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A few months ago, my toddler N started to go through a phase where she didn’t enjoy baths. This really didn’t make the bed time routine relaxing, as every night rather than happily running up the stairs to the bathroom like she had always used to do, she would be crying and protesting about getting in the bath. Then, once I finally persuaded her to get in, I would have to wash her as quickly as possible because she would be desperate to get out pretty quickly too.

I wondered if some new bath time toys would help the situation, and luckily we were sent a BABY born Surprise Bathtub doll which I was sure would be perfect for our bath time issues.

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Code Names is an easy to grasp spy themed card game based on word association. We were sent this game as part of the Blogger Board Game Club and have enjoyed playing it with the older kids in our family.

To play the game, the aim is to correctly identify words on a grid of cards based on one word clues from your team member.

Word cards are set out in a 5 x 5 formation in your playing area, with certain ones assigned as blue and certain ones assigned as red. Others are assigned as innocent bystanders, and one is the assassin card. The “guessers” will not know the location of each of these cards or colours, they can only see the words. Meanwhile, the clue giver will be able to see another card showing a map of these locations.

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The Balance Wonder is a two wheeled wooden balance bike from Hape. Using a balance bike is useful for giving children the confidence they need to ride a bike, practicing their sense of balance to help prepare them for riding a pedalled bike when they are ready – skipping the training wheel stage.

This balance bike is suitable for indoor and outdoor use, and we have enjoyed using it both ways – outdoors in the summer, and now we are using it indoors again as the weather is getting colder. This balance bike has rubberised wheels which do not scuff up the floor and have never left any marks on our flooring. During the summer, we did store it indoors too to help prevent any weather damage and just brought it outside to play. By doing this, after using it for several months it still looks just as good as new and has not suffered any wear and tear at all so seems to be durable and well made.

The Balance Wonder is recommended for age 3 years and up, and we were sent one to try out with N who is almost three.

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When I was a child, the one toy I always pined for but never ended up getting was a styling head. I would always play with them at friends houses or whenever it was toy day at school. So now that I have a little girl of my own and need to learn a better variety of hair styles, this is an ideal toy for us to both to play with and enjoy.

It’s not easy to practise braiding techniques on your toddler, when you are not yet confident in the style you’re trying to do as there is only so much time that they want to sit still! So it’s been really handy to practise on the styling head, as I would love to perfect some more unique styles beyond the basic braid. I’ve found it quite relaxing to sit of an evening and put a few braiding tutorials up on the TV from YouTube and then sit and try my hand at them.

The styling head comes with a brush, and accessories including hair bobbles so you have everything you need to get going. Here is the hair down and brushed, it is a little past shoulder length which is a similar length to my daughters hair which is handy as it makes it more realistic to practise on. The texture of the hair is quite silky and realistic.

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Dough Nab from Ginger Fox is a fun and fast paced game for all the family. The aim of the game is to grab the doughnuts at the right moment and be the first player to get rid of all your cards.

I played this game with my boys aged 8, 9 and 11 and it was enjoyed by all. The fast pace of the game leads to lots of laughs, and it can get quite competitive. The rules of the game are very easy to pick up, so it only takes a minute for everyone to get up to speed and get going with the Dough Nab fun.

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Coding is a skill that’s emphasised for children at a young age these days, and although it may sound daunting, the basic concepts can actually be introduced easily by using simple games like Which Way? from OKIDO. This game is recommended for children of around 4-8 years old and I was really interested to give it a try as we’ve been impressed by OKIDO products in the past.

Which Way? Is made up of a magnetic board, along with a magnetic car which will drive along the paths that you create. The aim of the game is to code suitable pathways to help you reach destinations on the play board.

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