Unleash the Sleuth in You at 5MinuteMystery.com

If you’re a mystery buff or the type who loves playing Clue, have I got a neat new site for you: 5MinuteMystery.com. It’s a place where you can solve a new mystery every day, earn points, and compete against other people in the process. Even better, the content on this site is family-friendly so everyone from little Billy to Aunt Zelda can enjoy solving the mysteries together –or against each other, which makes it even more fun. Getting Started 5MinuteMystery.com is a pay-to-play site, so when you sign up you also have to fork over $19.95. However, that’s for a … Continue reading →

Webkinz Toys and Extravaganza

This weekend is the Webkinz Extravaganza celebrating the third anniversary of the Webkinz toys. If you aren’t familiar with these stuffed animal toys that come with a code for online playing, you can read my earlier review here. For the celebration, many retailers are offering a free Webkinz with any $10 purchase. A lot of the stores are offering free parties with Webkinz themed games and prizes. Our stores here are hosting games like the Wheel of Wow, the Wishing Well, a live Gem Hunt, a Coupon Machine, coloring contests, a Jellybean Challenge, and a fashion “Stylekinz” contest. I do … Continue reading →

Cranium Super Showdown

Here’s another game that brings a lots of laughs to our house. Cranium Super Showdown is similar to Apples to Apples in that the players take turns being the judge. On each turn the judge picks a “Contest Card”. These cards say things like “climb to the top of Mt. Everest the fastest, or “kick a winning goal”, or “make someone laugh until milk shoots out of their nose”. Each player picks from his or her hand of challengers. The “Challenger Cards” have characters like Pinocchio, Barbie, Willy Wonka, a nurse, a librarian, or a frog prince. The players each … Continue reading →

Harry Potter Scene It? The DVD Game

Movie fans should give the Scene It? DVD games a try. Our family got the 2nd edition of Harry Potter Scene It? for Christmas. The game can be played with two to four players, or in teams. We divided up into three teams, my husband and one nine year old were one team, our other nine year old and I were another team, and our fourteen year old was on his own. He skunked us all. I’ve heard that kids can trounce adults in the Disney version, too! You do need a DVD player to play the game. An on … Continue reading →

Apples to Apples – Game Review

Last night our family played Apples to Apples. We laughed harder than we have in a long time. It only takes a few minutes to learn how to play, is a fast moving game, and it is great for multiple ages. The game comes with red apple cards and green apple cards, no dice, no board, no other pieces. Players take turns being the judge. The judge puts down a green card. Green cards have descriptive words like cowardly, refreshing, dainty, frazzled and heartless. The other players each choose a red card. These red cards each have the name of … Continue reading →

Quiddler: The Short Word Game – Game Review

Quiddler: The Short Word Game is a great game for families. The game takes about 20 minutes to play, quick to learn, is very portable, and is challenging for most ages. The official age suggestions are 8 to adult, but I’ve used a variation of the game for younger children. I even sometimes use the cards for teaching reading. The 118 cards are beautifully illustrated Celtic calligraphy designs inspired by books from 500 – 800 AD. The cards all have letters, or combinations of letters (CH,TH, IN, ER, QU), on them along with a number for scoring. On each round, … Continue reading →

Continuo – Game Review

I love games that don’t require reading a huge rule book or a lot of set up time. I also like games that can be played in less than twenty minutes. Continuo is one of those games. It’s incredible simple. You get 42 square cards. Each of those cards is divided into 16 small brightly colored squares. The idea is to place cards so that a color line is continued. You get points for the number of squares in each chain of color. If continue chain of both yellow and blue, you get points for both chains. The game is … Continue reading →

Mastermind – fun and logic

Mastermind is a great game for introducing or encouraging logical reasoning. One player picks four colored pegs and hides them on the end of the board. The other players uses educated guesses to figure out “the code” of colored pegs. There are six colors to pick from. One the code breaker guesses, the code maker places tiny black and white pegs off to the side. A black peg means you have a correct color in the correct position. A white peg means you have a correct color in your guess, but it’s not in the correct position. Officially it’s a … Continue reading →

UpWords – A Fun Game for Families

The UpWords game is a fun twist on Scrabble. Just like in Scrabble, players form crossed words horizontally and vertically on the board. The twist with UpWords is that the letter tiles stack, so you can build up on those words. For example, H – A – T could be changed to C – A – T, by placing a “C” tile over the “H” tile. The next player could play a “R” over the “T” so the word would become C – A – R, which could be changed to F – A – R, or the player could … Continue reading →

In a Pickle – Game Review

In a Pickle : The What’s in a Word Game is truly unique that encourages creative and logical thinking. The game is from GAMEWRIGHT and was a Dr. Toy Winner. It retails for around $8.00. Officially the game is for ages ten and up and for two to six players. I have used it with younger children though, and we also came up a solitaire version that I’ll explain a little later. The game takes about twenty to thirty minutes to play. It’s very easy to learn. Basically you try to win a set of words by building a row. … Continue reading →