Go Away Monster!

See this game at Amazon.com

In all honesty, we don't play many board games in our house. That is kind of sad for me as a mom, because I grew up loving all board games and playing them as often as I could wrangle a willing friend or adult into playing with me. Perhaps the boys are still too young to love board games (and still working on turn-taking skills). My oldest (now almost 5!) loves Candyland. (Our three year old does not play it yet.) But one game that both our 5 and 3 year olds play is.... Go Away Monster by Gamewright.

Go Away Monster is a cute and simple game. Each player (up to four players total) chooses a game board that looks like a bedroom. There is also a small sack with game pieces that fall into two categories -- items that belong in your bedroom and... MONSTERS! If you happen to draw a monster, you get to yell GO AWAY MONSTER!!!!, and in our house, you get to toss your little monster across the room.

This has been loads of fun. The boys like picking their rooms and selecting items for their rooms in the game. The game has gotten my older son acting a little bit like a decorator, wanting to coordinate his favorite room with the best matching room accessories. The boys also enjoy all the monsters, they like the surprise of pulling a monster from the sack, and they love yelling GO AWAY MONSTER!!!

My nearly-five-year-old also at times decides that some of the monsters are nice monsters and he has chosen to invite them to stay and hang out in his nicely decorated room.

Game play moves fairly quickly, and it works with our kids' attention spans. The set packs up nicely in it's container, and it's an easy way to have a little family fun. The kids have not grown bored with it.

Go Away Monster is a simple, fun, delightful game that our family enjoys very much. I recommend it and think it's a great game to share with preschoolers.

Mommy's Favorite Children's Books earns a small commission on Amazon.com sales.

I Spy... A Great Giveaway!

It's been about a year since I started Mommy's Favorite Children's Books last summer and when it started, I hoped someday to do a giveaway contest with a great prize.   Now I am happy to announce the first blog giveaway..... featuring I Spy books.  

I Spy books are favorites of my 4.5 year old son.  We have a few in our collection and he enjoys the photos so much.  I love how focused he is while working on searching for items within the pictures.  We love I Spy books for anytime, and they are very useful when kids need to sit a while while waiting or traveling. 

This giveaway celebrates a brand new I Spy book....  

I Spy A to Z!

Easy-to-read riddles by Jean Marzollo are paired with forty-six object-filled photographs by Walter Wick to create I Spy A to Z, the most engaging alphabet book ever! With more than thirty titles and 36 million books in print, the I Spy series continues to win the hearts and minds of parents and kids everywhere. 

 

This giveaway offers FIVE prizes!  Wow!

One very lucky reader will receive an awesome grand prize package valued at more than $80 with books AND games! 

• Wii Video Game ‘Ultimate I SPY’

• Board Game ‘I SPY Memory Game’

• I SPY A to Z: A Book of Picture Riddles

• I SPY Treasure Hunt

Four (4) runner-up winners receive a copy of the new book I SPY A to Z: A Book of Picture Riddles!  (Each book valued at $13.99)

HOW TO ENTER:  Leave a comment (with your email or a link with a way to contact you if you win) and include 1) the title of your favorite children's book and 2) why you love it.

We're doing this the old fashioned way, one entry per person, please. No duplicates or incomplete entries. Entries will be accepted through July 6.  US residents only, please. Winners will be chosen at random, announced and notified by email on Wednesday July 8.  

(Anonoymous commenters and new visitors -- thank you so much for visiting --please be sure to leave me a way to contact you if you win, otherwise your entry is invalid. If you forgot and want to fix it, post an identical comment with a way to reach you, thanks.) 

Thank you for reading and entering the I SPY giveaway at Mommy's Favorite Children's Books!  Good luck!

A sweet classic board game: Candyland

There are only two board games that get regular use at our house -- Candyland and Go Away Monster  (review to come).  

I wonder if there is anyone who is unfamiliar with Candyland -- this classic board game has been around for generations.

A (our oldest, 4.5 years), loves Candyland, he is willing to play it anytime. 

See this game at Amazon.com

As a child I remember being very bored with Candyland.  Perhaps it's because I was an early reader and I felt the color cards were too simple.  I much preferred Chutes and Ladders .  I think that may mean I'm unique.  My new brother-in-law has detailed memories of Candyland's Lord Licorice.....  uh, I thought, who is that?  

It is interesting to compare various versions of Candyland published over the years.   The current came has Princess Frostine instead of Queen Frostine.  The molasses swamp has become a chocolate swamp, and the gameplay has changed.  In the version of my childhood, a player would get stuck on a dot space until a certain color card was drawn, which made for a long, frustrating  time stuck.  The modern version has a photo of licorice on the sticky spaces and the unlucky player only loses one turn -- for a gentler and less frustrating wait. 

The Hasbro web site has a history of the game and neat slide show with photos of the different versions through the decades.  Which version do you remember playing as a child? 

Now that I have a child that loves Candyland, I'm just now experiencing the best of this game with him.  

I admit, I let my son cheat and win every time we play.  He does not like getting sent back to an earlier point in the game by one of the special cards.  For a little while the house rules were that pieces only go forward, but now I am sending my player back to try and model the correct way to play.  A seems to be innately competitive, and he wants to win Candyland every time we play, cheering for himself when he receives double color cards and expressing disappointment when his game piece advances only a space or two.  He sweetly invites me to join him in the Candy Castle as soon as he wins.

I have heard the new, electronic Candy Land Castle  game suits younger players (2 and 3 year olds) who aren't ready for the classic Candyland game.  Apparently the concepts are totally different, and Castle is about color and shape matching.  I am not a big fan of electronic games though, and they can be expensive.  Have you tried Candyland Castle?  Let us know what you think!

Lucky Ducks - lots of fun if you can stand the quacking

I hesitate to recommend Lucky Ducks. Play the video below and you'll understand quickly. It's not one of my favorites, but.... the kids enjoy it very much, and how can I not love a game that they love to play?

The problem is the quacking. Listen to the seven second demo below. The game is simple and easy to play -- there are 12 ducks, each with a shape/color on the bottom. There are four shapes to match. Each player tries to get all 3 of their matching ducks. 



My boys can almost play this game together alone -- a huge bonus, and, another -- there aren't that many pieces to pick up when the game is over. The box could be a little bigger for all the pieces to fit well -- it's a tight fit (which is very frustrating -- game makers should think about making clean up easy and not skimp on the package design).

Lucky Ducks is a nice game, a game that doesn't require reading, a game that holds toddlers' interest with cute, dimensional pieces and easy to follow rules...   But... the quacking! .....the quacking! Enjoy this game with your family if you dare!
 
Lucky Ducks

Cookie Matching Game (Fisher Price)

One of my friends in playgroup has this cute matching game at her house. It's called Matchin' Middles by Fisher Price.

Since my friend has this toy and the boys get to experience it at her house, I don't think I'll buy it for our own home -- it can be something special for our visits. But I like this toy very much and would absolutely consider giving it as a gift.

The pieces look like chocolate wafer sandwich cookies (you know, Oreos - yum!) and pull apart to show interior shapes. The two halves then puzzle together to re-assemble the cookie. I think this is a cute twist on shape sorting and matching, and the cookies are cute by themselves for use in a play kitchen or tea party. I like that the toy is dimensional and that the twelve shapes offer a good variety to identify and match.

FISHER-PRICE Games MATCHIN' MIDDLES

Don't Break the Ice

Don't Break the Ice is one of my favorite games from childhood that I was excited to share with the boys.  The game is simple and fun, with ice blocks that fit into a plastic frame.  A polar bear statue sits on a larger block, which can be placed anywhere within the frame.  Kids take turns knocking out the blocks until the figurine falls or all the "ice" is knocked out.  It's very fun.

Don't Break the Ice is a great physical action game.  It does take some time to set up, and impatient parents may have difficulty with the ratio of setup (about a minute) to destruction (about 10 seconds with toddler players).  Still, the kids enjoy Don't Break the Ice so much that I don't mind.  The boys are starting to help more with the setup process, and soon they will learn to take turns, slow down the play, and strategize.  For now, it's just a fun knock-'em out game, and that works too.  I'm looking forward to playing Don't Break the Ice with the kids for a long time.

Don't Break the Ice