Once upon a time, many, MANY years ago, I invented a game for my grandchildren to play when they visited. They used to love playing it but when they got older, I put it away in my ‘chest of treasures’ and forgot all about it.
Now I have two younger grandsons aged 5 and 7. One day, when my daughter visited, she asked about the game so I dug it out, dusted it off and gave it to my grandsons to play and….they loved it too! We had loads of fun playing it (of course we let the 5 year old win – it’s the grandparent law isn’t it?) So now, every time they visit, they ask me to get it out so they can play it again.
It was my daughters suggestion that I tried to market the game, so together with a friend, I decided to do it, and that’s where we are now. It has taken quite some time to finally get a product that we feel is good quality, value for money and bright enough to engage small minds.
The games are made up of a set of cards, which have pictures or numbers on them and some brightly coloured answer pockets. The aim is to slot the correct card into the corner of the answer pocket to match whatever is in that particular square – the winner is the one who gets all four cards in first…..checking they are correct of course! It is simple for children to understand, and my grandchildren loved the slotting in of the cards almost as much as getting it right.
Everything is printed locally (and by locally, I absolutely mean Harrogate!), the box is recycled cardboard, and my 19 year old grand-daughter helps me assemble the sets to be sent off.
The first game we have produced, is aimed at reception, and key stage 1 children and introduces them to simple words, object and numbers. We currently have just the one game on offer, but we have so many more in the pipeline!
Our next game will involve simple maths (addition and subtraction) aimed at helping children with simple calculations. We have games for reception children starting with very simple word association then moving on to colour and word association. We also have French, German and Spanish word, number and picture games for older children just starting out learning these languages, plus more ideas in the pipeline.
This has been an exciting journey from something just for my own grandchildren, to something I really wanted to share with other people. Hopefully you will like what we have done.
If you visit my website www.wendyhousegames.co.uk you will find more information and a link to buy.
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