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Go round the board and pick up cheese pieces without getting caught in the trap. First mouse to get six cheeses wins.

Board requires adult assembly.

2 - 4 players

Age suitability: 6+

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Race up and down the board collecting dinosaur eggs but if you land on a dinosaur print and the dinosaur is awake, you have to go back to the start.  If he's asleep, relax, you get to keep the eggs.

A game for 2-4 players.

Age suitability: 4+ years

Orchard Toys is a Norfolk-based company designing and making their games in-house. They have been going for years and have a reputation for producing good, honest games which are both fun and educational.  All the games are fully tested by teachers and of course by children so they are totally safe and dependable.

Most of the games are aimed at the 3-6 year olds.  To an adult the games will inevitably seem somewhat simplistic but they really know that age group so I never have any hesitation about recommending them.  Obviously children develop at different rates so some children may not be able to follow the instructions at first but that doesn't seem to matter as they enjoy playing with the colourful cards.  As the child develops, it isn't long before they fully appreciate the game and they benefit from the educational aspects whilst enjoying themselves.

A matching game - Pick a card and try to choose a tail to match up with your unicorn's head.  If you succeed, you can move your unicorn one square across the rainbow towards that pot of gold.

A game for 2 to 4 players.

Age suitability: 3 - 5 years

Outfoxed is an excellent cooperative deduction game.  Someone has stolen Mrs Plumpert's prize pie and you and the other players have to work out which fox is the guilty one. At each roll of dice, you get a chance of finding a clue or revealing a suspect.  If you are unlucky or you make a mistake, the fox moves three steps closer to getting away.

Children like this game because it's fun.  Parents like it because it also encourages the children's logic and memory skills.

Each game takes about twenty minutes.

Age suitability: 5 +

2-4 players

Here is an excellent review on Youtube from Tom Vasel of the Dice Tower:

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Pandemic is the best-known of all the co-operative board games and deservedly so.

You and your co-players travel around the world fighting to contain and find a cure for a deadly disease that is spreading rapidly.  Each player has different roles with specific abilities to contribute to the team.

2-4 players

Age suitability: 8 (bright 8) to adult

Here's a youtube video from 'Watch It Played':

Here's a board game with a difference.  There's no board.  Instead the players create their own planet, by sticking desert, mountain, ice, water or forest tiles on a magnetic dodecahedron, an ingenious feature of the game.  You do this in a way that creates the most suitable habitats for animals.  So for example penguins would need a large area of ice next to water whereas an arctic wolf would need ice but not water.  Each game lasts about half an hour.

2-4 players

Age suitability: 8+

Here's an excellent review from Tom Vasel of the Dice Tower on Youtube:

and a video from the game designers: