Games for all of the Family

by Laura @one.wild.family.life

We love games in our house, they are a great way to come together and spend some time in each others company with no distractions and a common interest. There is such a great selection of games on the market, so finding something a little different can be a challenge. The Wooden Play Den have a great selection of games from Small Foot who have created a really tactile and beautiful range of games. It’s also the perfect time of year to invest in a game or two as the days are wetter, and the nights longer. They are also amazing gifts for Christmas.

One of the most appealing things about these games is that they are all really tactile, pleasing to look at and hold and they grab the attention of a wide range of ages which is great when you want to bring the family together.

One of our favourite games to play together is the flying mouse game – each player has a little collection of mice and the aim is to fling them into a hole on the board! It is so much fun and because there are no tactics it’s a game for everyone – although it can certainly get a little competitive – we all like to be good at this one! Flying mice is a game no one in our family can resist getting involved it!

Last Christmas we had the Farmers Roulette as our family game, it’s such a simple idea, but when we passed it around the dinner table some of us were certainly more competitive than others! The game consists of a board on which you place some small balls and then spin a spinning top in the hope that the balls get knocked into holes all of which have different quantity of points! We really enjoy this game (it’s also great for maths, adding up bigger numbers so we use this a lot as a home educating family!) We love this one as anyone can win big or small.

All of the Smallfoot games we have are so tactile, it makes a difference to playing standard board games – my daughter who had recently turned 4 has two favourites. One is called Friends Bridge Game, in which you build a rainbow bridge for your animal to cross, this one is great as there are a few different ways to play so you can choose how hard to make it. The other is Penguin Memory Game, in which there are some hidden coloured cones underneath penguins and you have to search for the colour on the dice you rolled, it’s a lovely alternative to memory game.

My son who has just turned seven loved Frog Solitaire, it’s a great game for personal challenges or to keep hands busy when needed. It certainly helps that the little frogs are very adorable too! He also enjoys battleships – the way this game is constructed is really beautiful and is such an appealing version of this well loved game.

We also love the connect four board – it’s great for filling a quick 10 minutes here and there, and for us extends into pattern making, counting and adding too! I love watching my two play this together a nice fast paced game to introduce tactics, forward planning and communication.

The beauty of the Smallfoot games is that most of them have more than one way to play, they are so appealing in both touch and sight and the range has something that will be enjoyed by everyone! I cannot recommend these games enough, they are the perfect addition to games collections and they pull the whole family together (even my 94 year old granddad enjoyed Farmer’s Roulette last Christmas)

A new one for this Christmas is the bowling game, another one for fun for the whole family.

Full List of Games available here