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Thursday 2 January 2014

Stuff from Christmas that worked out: Zingo!



I've never been big on games. As a child I never got excited about monopoly and to my shame, I have managed to reach adulthood without ever learning how to navigate my way around a deck of cards.

Howandsoever, I must teach my kids that sneaking off with a book is not the only way to amuse themselves. (Although it is the best - other than sneaking off with a book and chocolate - that's heaven.)

So every Christmas we find something under the tree that I imagine we will all sit around the kitchen table and play together. Just like on t.v. You know, the shrieks of joy, the shared conspiratorial smiles, the strategy, the fun! Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Having little boys in the house means impatience and fiddley fingers, which means any game with vital, small pieces and coloured dice and tiny pencils and instructions that take longer than three minutes to read don't work. We lost most of the "bones" in Operation within seconds of the cellophane being torn off the box, Junior Cluedo was equally "successful" and our Bingo - well, there are 100 tiny balls in the counter thingy and if you lose one (one!) the game is pointless.

I need something where the end is in sight from the very beginning(so I know it won't be too long before I can sneak off with my book) and that our youngest can play. I learnt long ago that amusing him with colouring or even a movie while the older boys and I and their Dad play a game was futile. He will not be excluded. So, we got this one - Zingo! Bingo with a Zing.

Its great. The tiles are contained and if we lose one, its no biggie. The slidey mailbox thing that the tiles live in is sturdy and works even with small hands. Each round lasts about ten minutes so my heart doesn't sink when its pulled out of the cupboard and all in all, I really like it. We all do.

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