Games and Puzzles

Push along chunky wooden yellow digger. Double sided brightly coloured design.

Handcrafted from rubber wood by skilled artisans in Sri Lanka using non toxic paint

Recommended for ages 1 to 6 years. Not suitable for children under 10 months.

Dimensions: 96mm (H) x 173mm (W) x 58mm (D)

Wooden peg puzzle with chunky knobs easy for little hands to grasp. Good toy to encourage fine motor skills.

Five piece puzzle in a sturdy cardboard box.

30 x 8 x 1cm.

Age suitability: 12 months plus.

A first matching and memory game.

Each person was a monster game board and then has to find its matching wellies.

2-4 players

Age suitability: 2 - 6 years

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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 still enjoying themselves.

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A lovely little suitcase containing four dinosaur jigsaw puzzles.  The first one has six pieces. Then they get progressively harder with the fourth one having 16 pieces, so the set is ideal for someone just starting out on the puzzling journey.

Each puzzle measures 20 x 20 cm.

Large cardboard pieces. Each puzzle has a different colour backing to make life simpler.

Age suitability: 2 years plus.

Single person brain teaser game for children age 7 and upwards (and shop-keepers when it's quiet in the shop).

Get the rabbits back safely to their burrows by jumping over the mushrooms and foxes.

Comes on a board about 15cm across with a lid, so makes a great travel game.

Booklet with sixty challenges which start fairly easy but get harder and harder.  I have been unable to complete the book but it is still my favourite of all the excellent Smart Games.

SG421

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A large 20-piece jigsaw puzzle complete with a poster and learning guide.

Suitable for children ages 2 - 5

Seven happy dinosaurs, chunky enough to stand up on their own, on a wooden board.

30 x 21 x 2.1 cm with the pieces being 1.5 cm wide.

Age suitability: 18 months plus.

Lovely ten-piece, colourful wooden puzzle of a dinosaur, so ideal for us here on the Jurassic Coast.

Made from responsibly sourced rubberwood in workshops in Sri Lanka following the 10 Principles of Fair Trade.

Age suitability: 3+

 

 

 

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

Sleeping Queens is a card game in which the first player to wake up four of the 12 queens is the winner.  So you lay out the 12 queens face down (sleeping) on the table and deal five cards to each player. The stack of remaining cards is placed (face down) in the centre of the table.  When it's your turn, you must play one of your cards.

Playing a king means that you get to wake up a queen; a knight enables you to steal one of your opponents' queens unless they hold a dragon card which counteracts a knight; a sleeping potion card is used to send an opponent's queen back to sleep unless they can negate that with a magic wand card; jokers allow you to pick up another card from the pile number cards can be discarded singly or in multiples. At the end of your turn you pick up fresh cards so that you always have five cards in your card and of course you hope to pick the useful cards that will enable you to win more queens.  Sounds complicated but it's not really.  Each game takes about 20 minutes.

2 - 5 players

Age suitability: 8+  (although the game was invented by a six year old and many children below 8 will be able to enjoy the game)

 

 

 

Single person brain teaser game for children age 7 and upwards (and shop-keepers when it's quiet in the shop).

Comes on a board about 15cm across with a lid, so makes a great travel game.

SG452

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Single person brain teaser game for older children and adults.

Move the skeletons around the graveyard so that the girl and her black cat can escape.

80 challenges.  The first ones are straightforward but the final ones will be nigh impossible (at least for me).

Age suitability: 10 years old to adult.

Small parts.

36 piece jigsaw puzzle, depicting a busy building site, complete with digger, crane, roller, concrete mixer and a little dog.

Completed puzzle measures 50 x 40 cm.

36 large cardboard pieces.  Includes a helpful poster of the puzzle.

Age suitability: 4-6 years.

Super little five-piece wooden puzzle of a butterfly.  Ideal for little counters.

Made from responsibly sourced rubberwood in workshops in Sri Lanka following the 10 Principles of Fair Trade.

Age suitability: 10 months +

Test your brainpower by manoeuvring the squirrels around the board so that they drop the nuts in the holes.

Single player brain teaser game for children aged 6 onwards.  There is a booklet with 60 different challenges. The early ones are relatively straightforward but the harder ones will stretch many an adult.

To see more, please watch the video:

SG425

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Lovely ten-piece, colourful wooden puzzle of an elephant, no doubt an Indian rather than an African one,

Made from responsibly sourced rubberwood in workshops in Sri Lanka following the 10 Principles of Fair Trade.

Age suitability: 3+

 

 

 

Push along chunky wooden red train. Double sided brightly coloured design.

Handcrafted from rubber wood by skilled artisans in Sri Lanka using non toxic paint

Recommended for ages 1 to 6 years. Not suitable for children under 10 months.

Dimensions: 86mm (H) x 146mm (W) x 58mm (D)