Hello and welcome to our latest update 
How quickly the time goes!! It is hard to believe that 7mths ago I was in Canada for the birth of our beautiful granddaughter. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology and Skype we are able to continue to watch her grow and develop, albeit from afar. As a nanna I am reminded that parents are our children’s first teachers and play a major role in encouraging kids to learn and explore the world around them. Simple things such as talking & singing to babies, playing with them, pulling faces, making different noises etc all are important, but, boy am I looking forward to picking out some great games for her as she grows.

"For a small child there is no division between playing and learning; between the things he or she does 'just for fun' and things that are'educational'. The child learns while living and any part of living that is enjoyable is also play." Penelope Leach

Here are a few links to some interesting articles about the importance of playing and communicating with our children, even in those first few weeks / months.
Baby communication-newborn-to-3-months
babies learn through touching
play and babies 0to3months 

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New Games Available: Children’s Chess, Brain Boosters, Flashcards – colours, alphabet, numbers, shapes. Blokus Duo, Make ‘n’ Break Challenge, Gobblet x4

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Specials bin: Charades games on special until the end of June. 

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You can also now follow us on Twitter and Facebook

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Also, if you are involved in a Playgroup, Kindergarten, Toy Library or school we now have printed catalogues that we can send you.  Just Email Mary  or call her mobile:  0410 153 593

Remember these cooler evenings are a perfect for family games nights, hunt out your board or card games and have a fun time. Or check out our range for some great new games to try.

Have some fun. Mary

Charades is a guessing game probably invented in France during the 18th Century.  Originally a kind of riddle in verse or prose, today it is generally played as an acting game in which one player acts out  a word or phrase for the others to guess.The idea is to use physical rather than verbal language to get your message across and is a great family and party game.  Most kids love "acting" and performing: for those more shy, they have a great time laughing at the actors and trying to guess the words.  It encourages imagination, creative communication, builds confidence, teamwork and quick thinking while having lots of fun.   
At 3 and Up Games we have various charades games for the family, each with added challenges to make them even more fun.   

Step on It - for the littlies, players make footprints as they act out their words.  

Children All Age Charades - 3 levels of play making it easy for kids of all ages to be in this game. 
Cro-Magnon - combine mime, charcoal sketching, clay moulding and primitive speech to"evolve" or not! 
Cranium Cadoo -kids mime, sketch, crack codes, puzzle and sculpt to get 4 tokens in a row to win. Invovles lots of giggles and grinning.
Mindsi Junior - Kids use words, numbers, pictures, music and movement to collect 2 cards from each of 6 categories to win.

Here are some hints to get you started:

•  First indicate what you are going to mime: book - unfold your hands as if they were a book, movie - pretend to crank an old-fashioned camera, song - pretend to sing, tv show - draw a rectangle to outline a tv screen, quote or phrase- make quotation makes in air with fingers.  
• Then how many words in the title or phrase - hold up the number of fingers.  
• Then which word you are acting out - hold up number of fingers again.  

Then have lots of fun being silly. 

Some other common signals:  

• number of syllables in the word - lay number of fingers on your arm
• which syllable you are acting out - lay number of fingers on your arm again
• length of word - make a "little" or "big" sign as if measuring a fish
• "on the nose" - (someone has a correct guess)  - point at your nose with one hand, while pointing to the person with your other hand
• "sounds like" - cup one hand behind your ear
• "longer version" - pretend to stretch elastic
• "shorter version" - do a karate chop with your hand
• plural - link your little fingers 
• name - tap the top of your head
• past tense - wave you hand over your shoulder toward your back
• a letter of the alphabet - move you hand in a chopping motion toward your arm (near the top of your arm for near the beginning of the alphabet and near the bottom of your arm for near the end of the alphabet).  
• close, keep guessing - frantically wave hand about to keep the guesses coming
• not even close, I'll start again - wave hand in a wide sweep as if to say Go Away 
  
  
  These are common signals but of course can be adapted and changed depending on those playing, very easy to adapt to suit small children for example.

  
  
  
  
  So go on have a go - you can only have fun!!!