Fun & games

When you have a child you have an excuse for playing games. Board games in particular are a favourite of mine! When you have an illness like M.E which makes it difficult to do certain stuff then playing games is the perfect solution. Low energy activity & fun ..unless you discover your child hates losing!! Or perhaps even you do ;-) My daughter never used to like it but she's fine with it now & even tries to lose on purpose sometimes so someone else wins, which kind of defeats the object!

We have a good selection of games & I have found some good bargains in charity shops too if I've been lucky. Some of the classic games are still firm favourites like Guess Who, Ludo and Snakes & Ladders. We were playing Guess Who (well, a different, cheaper version of it but the same thing!!) yesterday & we had both picked the same person without knowing. Was pretty funny when we realised at the end! Hearing my little girl laughing is my favourite thing & we always end up giggling lots so it's very good medicine!

My daughter came back from her grandparents last week with Screwball Scramble & it was a complete blast from the past. I used to love it when I was younger so was nice seeing it again. I don't think they make games like they used to but then that just makes me sound really old. Which I am I suppose!

Another favourite in our house is Orchard Toys games. Link to website here. They are educational as well as fun & suit various ages. They do have age guides on the box but even the ones for younger age groups are nice to play with the whole family. They make good presents too so can never really go wrong with them.

I really like wooden games. My favourite ones are by Melissa & Doug. This is a link to their website but various places stock their products. We have had their stuff since she was a baby as they do lovey chunky jigsaws & other puzzles suitable for tiny people. We also have a retro wooden Noughts & Crosses which always goes down well when friends are here to play.

Children seem to have a knack for making their own games up & we are often having to play some totally bonkers game that my daughter has made up! A few weeks ago we had to roll a dice & each number was assigned a different action by her. So if we threw a 1, it was something like clapping hands a certain amount of times, 2 was rolling a bouncy ball across the floor & 3 was singing a song ..you get the idea! Very random but it kept her occupied for ages. It drove me mad but she was happy!!

I remember when she was a lot smaller & never sat still, I would say "let's see how long you can lie still for" as it was sometimes the only way to get a break! It would only last a few minutes until she was up again. Kids have so much energy, it would be nice if I could pinch some of it!!

We are running out of space for everything despite donating a lot of stuff to charity recently, but it's her birthday coming up so no doubt we will have to try to find room for lots more things! Can't wait (there may be a hint of sarcasm in there!) :-D

Ali
ME Mummy A
xx