try small things

Goliath Games US/Pressman Toy sent us the games in this post to try. All opinions are my own and from the heart. 

OF COURSE my kids love their screen time. (Does blood not run through their veins?) But suggest a board game that we all play together and nine times out of ten they’re keen to give it a go. Goliath Games US/Pressman Toy just sent us some games to try and ‘tho my 9- and 11-year-old really enjoyed Sequence, Mastermind and Wordsearch (all great for their ages and entertaining enough to keep us adults off our phones), they’re OBSESSED with Googly Eyes. Like spin their heads 360 degrees obsessed. (Or maybe that’s POSSESSED. Ah whatever.) If you’re looking for something to put under the tree for kids 7 and up, THIS is the game you want to buy.

It’s like Charades, only instead of acting out a word, you’re drawing it while wearing funny-looking glasses that make it hard to see what you’re doing. Each correct guess helps players advance along the board and the first one to the finish wins.

Choosing a card and then rolling a dice will tell you which word you have to draw and how many seconds your teammate has to guess. (There’s an obnoxiously loud buzzer — the best kind! — to keep the time.) The colours on the card match the colours of the lenses you’ll need to wear while you’re drawing — green is fairly easy to see through, yellow more difficult and blue makes it almost impossible to know what you’re doing. (The lenses are easy to switch in and out of the frames.)

Lily had to wear the worst lenses for her turn here and could barely keep her pencil on the paper, let alone draw a reasonable facsimile of the word on her card. I couldn’t make heads or tails of it. When the buzzer went off she held up a piece of paper covered in chicken scratches and said, “It’s Mother Goose! How could you not guess that?”

James thought that was HILARIOUS and literally fell off his stool laughing. Between the funny looking glasses and our funny looking drawings, all of us were in stitches.

Tho it doesn’t say so in the instructions, Googly Eyes is much more fun to play in your pajamas. Especially Christmas ones with little gnomes all over them.

I can’t WAIT for you to try it and tell me what you think. Or maybe you already have? Any Googly Eyes fans reading along?

Giveaway!

Thanks to Goliath Games US/Pressman Toy, I have all four board games to give away! One lucky reader will win Googly Eyes, Mastermind, Wordsearch and Sequence. (You could say it’s the ultimate family game night package.) To enter to win, tell me two board games that are popular at your house. This entry is mandatory.

For another entry, visit try small things on Facebook and like (or love!) this post and leave a comment, then tell me you did so and your name on Facebook in the comments below. (You don’t have to share, BUT THE HOLIDAYS ARE COMING AND YOU-KNOW-WHO IS WATCHING! ALSO, if you’re not following me on Facebook, NOW IS AS GOOD A TIME AS ANY, JUST SAYING.)  

And feel free to tweet the following once per day and leave the url for your tweet in the comments below (one entry per tweet). Make sure you’re following try small things and Goliath Games US on Twitter for your entry to count.

Because super fun family board games make great holiday gifts: Enter to win four faves from @trysmallthings https://wp.me/p4xBed-6TJ  CAN/US 12/16

The contest is open to Canadian (excluding Quebec) and US residents 18+ and ends at 11:59 p.m. EST on December 16, 2018. The potential winner (chosen at random) must respond to prize notification within 48 hours and provide the correct answer to a skill-testing question, otherwise another winner will be selected.

Good luck everybody! I can’t wait to hear about your favourite board games!

Update December 17, 2018: Congratulations Jennifer P!