During the summer, my crew lives on their electronic devices. But, now that everyone is back in school, the electronic’s time is really cut back around our house. Devices are turned off when at home and the online/console games are restricted until after dinner and homework is completed. Once the crew stops their moaning, they head for our game cabinet and always manage to find something to entertain themselves. We recently added several new games to our collection from Blue Orange Games. They have games that are easy to play and most are set up so that you can “modify” the rules as needed when the younger ones want to participate. Join us and bring back family game time with Blue Orange Games!
About Blue Orange Games
Blue Orange Games was founded in 2000 by Julien Mayot and Thierry Denoual in San Francisco, California. As a company, we are committed to helping family and friends create timeless memories around a great game.
Blue Orange Games has earned a reputation for creating award-winning products with strong play values. Our games are born from many sources, but we develop, design, and promote them in-house. We want our games to be enjoyed by families for years to come, so every Blue Orange game must be easy to learn, fun to play, and engaging for a wide range of ages.
Mindo Kitten
This puzzle game can be played alone or as a challenge. There are 4 puzzles for you to master. The rules are easy and even the younger ones that like matching games can play. Just start flipping over the tiles until you find the ones needed to create the puzzle you are working on. The catch? The puzzle pieces will only fit one way in the card, so you have to think about the placement. The game has 60 different challenge cards and 4 levels of difficulty! The higher levels are proving to be quite the challenge.
Brain Connect
If you enjoy those slider games, this is the one for you! You have to be quick as you slide and connect your puzzle pieces into the right order. Finish first and you win! These sliding puzzles have 16 different starting points so the challenges will always be fresh.
Kitty Bitty
This game helps players to remember and correctly identify colors. It also requires that you remember which mommy cat eyes will catch the kittens. It is really an adorable memory game.
Where’s Mr. Wolf
Working together, the goal is to help all the farm animals get back to their barns before Mr. Wolf arrives. But where is he? Make sure you watch for him as you flip over the pieces. Each time he shows up, he gets closer to catching you. This cute game involves a shared goal which helps little minds work on memory and teamwork at the same time.
Happy Bunny
As you pick carrots in this game be careful which ones you pick. All the carrots with a bite out of them are for the bunny, while the untouched ones are for the farmer. Line up all the carrots and see which harvest is the tastiest! This adorable game is perfect to teach teamwork and counting.
Dr. Eureka
This game involves “pouring” from one test tube to another until your tube matches the challenge card. You can’t touch the balls or drop them. This brain teasing game can be played alone or as a party challenge.
My Thoughts:
When you have a large or mixed age-range family like we do, then it can be hard to play a game that includes everyone. Yes, the younger ones can team up with a parent or older child, but they will get to a point where they want to play by themselves. So instead of setting up two different games (which is a great option some times to keep the peace), then you need to find games that the younger children can play while the older children aren’t bored. That’s one of the great reasons to stock up with Blue Orange Games since most of them can be tweaked to accommodate older or younger players as needed.
Dr. Eureka is always a blast as you “pour” your formulas from one tube to another until it matches the card you drew from the deck. But the trick is not to touch the chemicals or let them fall. This game can be played alone or with up to 4 players. You could easily create teams or add time challenges for a “harder” challenge for the older kids that might be playing. Brain Connect is also a great game for older kids as it requires you to move or slide pieces around to match the card you drew from the deck. Each card has multiple start and stopping points so the game is always different each time you play. I love hearing the kids trying to work out their puzzles against each other, or even when they challenge the parents to a few rounds!
Now if you have mostly younger children, there are a few games we played that were mainly meant for them. If the older kids were playing with us, then I teamed each younger with an older sibling to act as a guide or a helper. Happy Bunny, for example, is a board game where the players are collecting carrots for their bunny family; if they pick a carrot with a bite out of it, they can keep it! If it’s uneaten, then the farmer gets that tasty carrot. And then at the end of the game, the players compare their harvest to the farmer’s harvest and see who wins! This is also a great age to play with Where’s Mr. Wolf? This is a fun memory game where you try to make matches and get the animals back to their homes. But if Mr. Wolf shows up, he gets a space closer to the barn and you have to get there first! I love that this game teaches not only memory skills but also teamwork since everyone works together toward the same goal.
Kitty Bitty is also great for the younger set who may not be reading yet, but are great at visual games. The kittens just want to play, not nap, while not being busted by the mommy cats. You roll a dice and try to match to the mommy cat and see if she catches you. And the first kitten back to the basket wins the game! And in the same vein is the game Mindo Kitten, where you have to recreate the color combination on the deck card by flipping your tiles over to one side or the other. You can use a 3×3 or 4×4 grid, depending on the challenge level your children need. This is great mental and visual stimulation for kids this age. At first, you can start out just making sure they can complete the puzzle, then move up to time trials or challenges with other players, as this is a 1 player (at a time) game.
I have come to look forward to game time with the kids, whether we are all in the back yard or if I’m just listening from the other end of the table while I check their homework or cook dinner. And Blue Orange offers so many different games so that all kids can play, whether they are young or older. And the directions can be as flexible as you need them to be in order to fit your needs for different kids. Be sure to bring back family game time with Blue Orange Games today, and keep those electronics turned off just a little while longer!
Make sure to follow Blue Orange Games on social media:
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
We’ve added Blue Orange Games to our Back2School2018 on MDR Gift Guide! Check it out here!
