Tag: games for kids

Edurino Coding Skills Starter Kit

Birthday Gifts, Children, Christmas, Family Life, Games, Gifts for children, Learning, Mobile Phone, Stocking Fillers, Tech, Toys

Disclaimer – We received this item free for the purpose of this review/feature but all words and opinions are our own.

Edurino create playful learning apps on phones and tablets for children aged 4-8 years old. There’s a variety of different apps, each guided by a cartoon character and cover subjects of learning such as numbers & shapes, word games, plants & wildlife and creativity & design.  This Edurino game is for Early Coding Skills – games which stimulate children’s ability to solve puzzles and non-verbal reasoning.  

The Early Coding Skills set from Edurino is guided by the character Luca and uses the Luca figuring and Edurino pen which are included in the starter kit.  You need your own phone or tablet to download the app (there’s a QR code in the instructions to make it easier) and an adult’s email address for the login.  Once the app is downloaded, you put the figurine on the screen so that it reads which starter pack you’re working from, then after entering the login details, you create the character of your child to take part in the story, including their name.

The Edurino Early Coding world takes you on a journey to discover what the Chaos Bugs have done to mess up the factory and along the map, your child solves the puzzles to further the characters along the journey. Some of the puzzles are recognition of shapes and cartoon faces, creating blocks to the right shape in order to fix the wall and simple pattern recognition.  The games are all aimed at children aged 4-8 so they’re not super hard, but if your child gets stuck and can’t ask you for help, they can click on Luca onscreen and ask for help. The Edurino Pen is designed to teach children how to hold a pencil properly (there’s even a tutorial onscreen as part of the app) and uses the pen in different ways to challenge their thinking, but also get them used to using the pen, which works on any touchscreen.

Depending on the age and skill of your child, this game could be finished relatively quickly, or you can replay each of the levels to give them more practice. The levels have different skills which are needed to complete them, and build up to a set of skills needed for coding. Even if your child isn’t interested in coding, the games are straightforward and stimulating that they can sit and complete them without much help.  If you do need to help, it’s pretty easy to work out what you have to do, and the verbal instructions are really easy to follow.

It did take a while to set up though and you need to be connected to the internet. I couldn’t find a way of playing without creating an account either, so you have to be prepared to give your email address over and be able to verify it so if you’re using this to go on holiday or drive somewhere, make sure you set it up first for children otherwise it will become very frustrating!  There’s also places where it directs you to the parent site which is in German, so be prepared to have to re-type to the UK/US version to be able to read in English.

It’s a great way of teaching children the basics of coding and how to problem solve with non-verbal reasoning. The Edurino app is easy to follow for children and safe too with the parental controls which requires the user to be able to read.  It’s quite pricy at £44.95 but that includes the price of the Edurino Pen and the figurine too, which children can place over the pen and play with at another time. Even better, they learn a lot too!

https://www.edurino.co.uk

Available from £44.99 at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Edurino-Ergonomic-Educational-Recognition-Handwriting/dp/B0CH3TVJD4/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=144HGANAAPZV3&keywords=arduino+starter+kit&qid=1701535184&sprefix=edurino+starter+kit%2Caps%2C114&sr=8-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1

Edifier W820NB Plus Noise Cancelling Headphones

Children, Christmas, Family Life, Gifts for children, Gifts for Her, Gifts for Him, Home, Tech

Disclaimer – We received this item free for the purpose of this review/feature but all words and opinions are our own.

Imagine it’s Christmas in the year 2000. The Millennium Bug is behind us, but the iPod still hasn’t been invented yet (that was in 2001) and the iPhone is just a pipe dream, not on the market until 2007.  Most of us still have that stereo stack in our houses, you know the one with a turntable, double cassettes and a CD player with two big speakers attached which you probably designed the layout of your living room around when you furnished it.  Somewhere on that massive stereo stack is a headphone jack. Headphones you had to plug in, which would have cost a lot extra on top of that stereo stack and then you had to buy a convertor jack as well so that they could play on any of your devices. Don’t get me started on using headphones on a Walkman!

Nowadays all our music is on our phone. You might want to hear music over your computer too, and the choice of music isn’t just what you have downloaded but there are streaming services like YouTube, replay TV apps and pretty much anything else you want to find on the internet. All that content, and now, you don’t need to plug in any headphones because like the Edifier W820NB Plus, they are all Bluetooth.

The Edifier W820NB Plus headphones connect seamlessly with any device which is Bluetooth enabled. There’s no need to download anything, especially no apps or programmes which need configuring and you don’t even need to plug them into your computer to pair them let alone connect them in any way. The Bluetooth search option on your computer (or phone or any device really) automatically ‘sees’ the headphones, asks you if you want to connect then you can listen straight away. The only time you need to plug in your Edifier headphones is when they need charging, and the total charge time for the Edifier W820NB Plus headphones is 49 hours, so you won’t need to do that very often!

Unlike in Y2K, the Edifier W820NB Plus headphones have added features. These are noise cancelling headphones, which if you’ve never tried them before means that you can’t hear much of the ‘outside world’ when you have them on.  As the music is playing, other noises are drowned out so that all you can hear is the music. Even when there isn’t music playing, there is the noise cancelling effect so that other noises are voided. Traffic, for instance is lessened even without anything playing on the headphones which makes for more peaceful travel, whether you’re a passenger in a car or on a flight and want to block out the white noise.  Perfect for sleeping!

You have the option too of Ambient Sound. This allows for some outside noises to be heard, usually voices, so that you’re not completely isolated. This is great for when you’re at work or working from home and have to be aware of people trying to communicate with you not through the PC or sound system. It prevents you being easily startled and keeps you slightly more in the world than if you had noise cancelling switched on.

The Edifier W820NB Plus also work great whilst travelling because of the Zero Pressure Patent Earcups. The ultra-comfy earpads are made of memory foam and create zero pressure on your ears to make them more comfortable.  When travelling on a plane, this is super handy because the changes in pressure in the cabin don’t affect the fit of the headphones if you’re wearing them for long periods of time. 

All of the controls for the headphones are on the right ear piece. There’s the on/off switch and a volume up and down. You can hold down the volume keys to switch back and forth between tracks too. The ‘M’ button you can see in the photo is for connecting to Bluetooth and turning on and off the ambient sound and noise cancelling features.  With each change in feature, a woman’s voice tells you what’s happening (“ambient sound ON”) with the exception of skipping tracks that would only interrupt what you were listening to anyway.

The Edifier range is known for their quality and ease of use and the Edifier W820NB Plus is no exception. They’re great for work, travel or for the kids and the long battery life and 7 hours of play from 10 minutes of charge is the Christmas icing on the cake.

Available from £79.99 (but currently on sale at £55.99):

Dog Keychain from Kikkerland

Birthday Gifts, Children, Christmas, Family Life, Gifts for children, Gifts for Her, Gifts for Him, Pets, secret santa, Stocking Fillers

Disclaimer – We received this item free for the purpose of this review/feature but all words and opinions are our own.

Dog lovers, this one is for you!

The Kikkerland dog keychain is exactly what it says it is – a keyring that’s in the shape of a dog!  No more losing your keys on the long dog walks across the fields or into the woods, this sturdy keychain can hold all of your keys and more.

Made of zinc alloy, it’s durable, doesn’t rust and won’t bend out of shape and is lightweight too. The screw closure ensures that all your keys are safe and the hollow outline of the dog face means you’ll be able to add more keyrings or keys to the chain. The unique shape also means you’ll be able to put your hand in your pocket and find your dog keyring easily. At just £9 it’s great for Secret Santa or as a gift which can be posted as it’s flat and so light.

This is a great Secret Santa for dog lovers or collectors of keyrings, looks stylish and like all Kikkerland products, will last for ages!

Available from £9.00 at:

Dog Keychain

Connetix 120 Piece Creative Pack

Uncategorized

Disclaimer – We received this item free for the purpose of this review/feature but all words and opinions are our own.

This would have been my 5-year-old me dream toy! We had something similar in school that wasn’t magnetic but had creative pieces of coloured Perspex that fitted together and you can build endless imagination items. Connetix is aimed at children, but like all good toys, has taken on a life of its own and managed to infiltrate adult lifestyle.  If you’re a fan of Lego, then you’ll love reading about Connetix, the 21st Century version of the building blocks.

Connetix is aimed at children aged 3 and up.  We were sent a 120 piece pastel pack that includes 7 different shapes, with at least 2 shapes of each colour.  The food grade, non toxic pieces have strong magnets along each edge which allow the pieces to ‘stick’ to each other and build structures or shapes. The riveted corners make them extra safe for toddlers and children and the bevel design gives extra strength. That’s all great information for budding engineers, but what is it like to play with?

The enormous box arrived at my house by courier as it’s so heavy!  Inside, the pieces are stacked carefully and kept together by their magnets.  Thankfully there’s an Inspiration Book included in the pack so that you can make a start on what to build.  Beyond the Inspiration Book, no other instructions are needed as it’s self-explanatory even for little hands and minds. Working out how the pieces snap together with the magnets, finding the matching colours and working out the lengths of the triangle edges adds to the cognitive fun. In fact, there are so many ways in which children can learn from this game that depending on their age, they can glean a lot of learning.

The packaging boasts of encouraging hand-eye coordination, fine and gross motor skills spatial awareness as well as cognitive development. Along with personal development, children of different ages can work together to make creations which encourages teamwork, cooperation, language and lateral thinking.  The versatility of this game, which is also considered a craft or art supply item, lends itself to developing a lot of skills as well as bridging ages.  Much like Lego or any of the other free-play games and toys, you don’t’ stop playing with Connetix just because you’re past a certain age.

For example, I found myself flicking through the Inspiration Book, trying to find something which I could build as an example. Eventually, I found this turtle which is in the book and looked simple enough.  Well, even as an adult, this had its challenges! The pieces snap together but trying to decide which triangle and which edge to use to make the pieces stand up properly was difficult enough. You definitely need more than one pair of hands to keep things steady as you build and rummage for another piece, so as I was on my own at home, I had to find ingenious ways of propping up the pieces whilst I balanced the next piece to make it stable.  Using my initiative to build a 3-D structure which looked like the photo as well as colours that matched was also quite the task.  Looking through the Inspiration Book, I realised that there is a whole Connetix community out there who use the pieces to inspire, build art, teach and keep children and adults of all ages occupied!  

The Connetix family of magnetic pieces isn’t confined to just children nor to building 3-D models although it is ideally suited to both.  The Inspiration Book opened my eyes to how the pieces can create patterns, pictures, types of transport (wheels etc can be bought separately) and clever structures. What about a table cloth made out entirely of Connetix pieces? Or a light shade to put in front of a bright light and shine through all the colours?  Making a bridge or a house for other toys to use and decorations such as Halloween lanterns, or a centre piece for Christmas?

My favourite idea though was the ball run inspirations. If you’ve never seen it before, the ball runs (sometimes they’re marble runs) are structures built so that a ball can run down a course which is typically fraught with little trials that the ball has to overcome. Bridges, drops, tunnels and balances provide endless sources of amusement for children especially as they build it themselves and create their own experiments. Endless fun, and full of satisfaction too. The ball run packs are available online.

Connetix is a toy which the whole family can play with and have endless imagination fun but also challenges everyone on different levels. The Inspiration Book gives you examples of what you build next, or combine packs to create mega structures. Look online at the different social media accounts to see what else everyone around the world is creating too!

Available from £115.00: https://connetixtiles.com/product/120-piece-pastel-creative-pack-uk/

Kidoki Teeter Totter Shapes Wooden Balance Game

Birthday Gifts, Children, Christmas, Family Life, Games, Gifts for children, Home, secret santa

Disclaimer – We received this item free for the purpose of this review/feature but all words and opinions are our own.

Amidst all the techie toys out there, multiple screens and the commercial money-makers, Christmas toys is a minefield for getting the balance between educational and wholesome.  Kidoki have a range of toys which are suitable for children but without the screen time, or the added expense of having to buy an app, batteries, additional converters etc.  Harping back to a time of simpler toys, this Teeter Totter Shapes Wooden Balance Game looks like it’s come straight from the Elf Factory!

The Kikkerland box contains 11 wooden shapes, all brightly coloured and some with faces and patterns painted on them. They’re all completely different shapes too. The main piece is a blue ‘boat’ shape with a convex base. The idea of the game is to balance all 10 other pieces on top of the boat without it toppling over. There isn’t one way in which they all fit, so it’s a game of balance for little hands to try and build a structure that will not only balance but stay stable long enough for all the pieces to fit on top. There’s also the added difficulty of not all the pieces having straight edges – so how do you fit them all together?

For fine motor skills, problem solving and general fun, the Teeter Totter Shapes Wooden Balance Game has a lot to offer. As an adult, I found it difficult at first to work out how the pieces are meant to stack. Once you realise they aren’t meant to, and there are multiple ways in which they can stack, it becomes a race against time to get them into an order where they will all stay in once place! Yes, the boat rocks and you have to work out how to distribute the weight of each piece so that it doesn’t topple over. The shapes are all different heights as well, and different weights so it’s not obvious how you complete the tasks.

For children, this is a great game to challenge them, and it doesn’t involve screens or modern technology.  The painted faces and patterns also mean that children can use the blocks in a manner of different ways, including creating new games, or using along with other shapes from other games. They might also find them useful for learning the names of shapes and colours and using them in their imagination games.

We found that the Teeter Totter game was not just for children though! The size and robustness of the blocks meant it was great fun for adults to have a go in the evening, sitting around the coffee table with a drink and the TV on, each trying to work out how to fit everything together without it falling over! Make a game of it by timing how long it takes someone to balance all 11 blocks – the winner is the quickest!

Available online for £25 at: https://kikkerlandeu.com/products/teetertottershape-wood-balance-game?_pos=2&_sid=ac6edaecd&_ss=r

Taco Vs Burrito The Card Game

Birthday Gifts, Children, Christmas, Family Life, Games, Gifts for children, Home, Learning, secret santa, Stocking Fillers, Toys

Disclaimer – We received this item free for the purpose of this review/feature but all words and opinions are our own.

If you’re looking for a different card game to play this Christmas or to give as a gift, Taco vs Burrito ticks all those boxes. A game for 2-4 players, it can be played by any age (although it’s recommended from age 7 years upwards), this strategy game is for all the family. It only takes a few minutes to learn how to play and each round is only about 15 minutes long.

Invented by 7 year old Alex, the game has causes a storm with its whacky but fun cards. The game has won numerous awards including Best Family Fun Tilillywig Award, Winner of Hot Diggity Award 2021, and winner of National Parenting Product Award 2021. There’s been over 500,000 units sold worldwide already and 17,500+ 5-star awards from users. All from the imagination of a small boy whose parents started a Kickstarter appeal for funding for him, to make his dreams come true.

How to play: each player is given either a Taco or a Burrito (hence the name) as a basis of the game. Using the 5 cards dealt to you, each player either adds a weird ingredient card from their hand (such as fresh brains or chocolate covered shrimp) or an action card. The aim of the game is to build up a disgusting meal with ingredients cards that have different point values, then use the action cards to either increase the points value of your meal, or smash the value of your opponent’s meal. There’s also the Hot Sauce Card which doubles the value or your meal or that of other players when you play it against them.

As the game progresses, there’s other action cards such as the Tummy Ache card, No Bueno card (to stop the action of another player at any time), or the Health Inspector. If you get the Health Inspector card, you have to play it immediately in the game, sending all the ingredients cards in your meal to the discarded pile on the table, never to be used again. That is unless, you have the Trash Panda card, which allows you to take any of the cards from the discarded pile and add it back to your hand.

The different variation of action cards to use against the ingredients cards are what make the game fun for everyone. The cards are colourful and easy to read and for little ones, it helps develop their reading skills as well as taking turns in play.  The different type of action cards take a little while to get used to so I would have an adult sit and play until they all get hang of the game rules.  It’s great fun though, and everyone understood how to play with each consecutive game, so this is perfect for Christmas time board games!

Available on Amazon from £24.99: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Taco-Burrito-Popular-Surprisingly-Strategic/dp/B07JZTBV9C/ref=sr_1_5?crid=2CBW8R4GRTDFZ&keywords=taco+vs+burrito+card+game&qid=1694957554&sprefix=taco+vs%2Caps%2C80&sr=8-5