As many of you know I live on a tight budget but when it comes to gift giving I want to give something good quality, that has the wow factor and will be loved and last a long time.
When Jaques London offered to send me some children’s toys to review I was intrigued. I had never heard of the brand before so was keen to see what they were all about. As always, even though this is written in collaboration with Jaques London, all opinions are my own and I would never share something with you that I wouldn’t recommend to my friends and family.
When I looked at the website the first thing I noticed was now affordable the toys were. I was interested to see what the quality would be like and was expecting it to match the prices of the items. I could not have been more wrong though. When the toys arrived I had to double check the website to make sure I hadn’t read the prices wrong. The toys were packaged beautifully in stunning boxes with ribbons tied around them. They looked like high end, luxury products. Inside was beautiful tissue paper and a handwritten note to say who had packaged that particular game. Little touches like that really impress me and really add to the experience of receiving your purchase.
Shut The Box
The first game we ordered was ‘Shut the Box‘. It is a simple game where you have to use your math skills to total the number on the dice and flip down as many of the numbers as you can in order to shut the box. This has very quickly become Harry’s favourite game. He asks to play it most days when he returns from school and sits for extended periods of time trying to beat his best scores.
The game is fantastic for children to work on their maths skills, I have noticed Harry’s recall of number bonds and speed of addition have really improved since he started playing. He is learning without even realising it! The game really calls for children to use their problem solving skills and Harry loves this, getting so excited when he figures out a way to flip down more of the numbers. With Megan we play slightly differently as she is younger. She rolls the dice, counts the spots and just flips down the total. This has been great for her counting and number recognition skills. The game is good quality. Harry can be quite rough flipping the numbers when he is excited and it still looks good as new! For only £14.99 I am so so impressed!
You can purchase Shut The Box here.
Tiddlywinks
The next game that we ordered was Tiddlywinks. It is a travel set version and only costs £13.99. I love the idea that my children are playing traditional games that I played when I was little and the shrieks of joy while they played this were everything! They did find this game extremely challenging at first so we drew a circle on a piece of paper for them to practise getting the tiddlywinks into before trying again with the box provided.
This game is not easy but is so much fun and the perseverance shown by my children as they played amazed me. It also helped them to learn turn taking skills, even when they are excited and in the moment. We kept a tally of scores, again helping with Maths skills. Harry and Megan loved it.
You can purchase Tiddywinks here.
Chinese Checkers/Go Bang
This set is 2 games in 1 and is another game that Harry in particular has wanted to play most days. It costs £25.99 and is beautiful. It would look so lovely set up on a toy shelf ready to play. I find this game a really good one to get out when Harry and Megan need some calm time. The concept is really simple, to get your pieces into the triangle at the opposite side of the board, the first one to do that wins. When we started playing the children quickly learned that there were strategies they could use to get pieces there faster, learning when to hold pieces back and when to move pieces forwards.
I was so impressed with the problem solving skills that this brought out in Harry and Megan and how carefully they would think before moving a piece. These same skills are required for Go Bang and both games really bring out my children’s competitive nature! Again, these games help teach turn taking, social skills, patience, problem solving and coping with defeat or being gracious in victory. I’m a firm believer that children learn best through play and this really showed while playing these games together.
You can purchase the Chinese Checkers / Go Bang set here.
I have been so impressed with the quality of the games we received from Jaques London and have already purchased a Christmas present for my nephew from them with my own money.
If you are looking for beautiful, quality, affordable gifts for a loved one this year I would highly recommend checking out their website.
For 15% off your purchases at Jaques London use the link here.
