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!!!  

Finding Lost Rules!

One of the frustrations of board and card games, especially those that we play over and over, is losing the rules!

So where can you find them? We have copies of some rules but there are a number of resources on the web that maybe able to help you.

Firstly check out the manufacturer of the game e.g.: Gamewright, Hasbro, Mattel and University Games all have links to rules / instructions for many of their games.

Other sites worth checking out are:

Card Games (Pagat.com) – Large list of card games rules.

D’Antiques – check out the Board Games category for a lots of replacement rules

Board Game Capital – good range of rules / instructions for board and other games

Masters Games – provides rules for traditional board, table, outdoor, card games and others.

Darwin’s Games Closet – has rules for over 2,000 games – although there is a cost for these

Check out this article from About.com for some more ideas and links

Happy Hunting and do let us know if you find other good sites for replacement rules and instructions.

Cranium Cadoo

Now that autumn is here and the days are getting shorter, and the nights cooler, what a great time to plan some fun family game nights. There are lots of great board and card games for all ages: games that bring family and friends together to share lots of fun while encouraging learning, creativity and imagination.

Try Cranium Cadoo: a wonderful game for kids that can be enjoyed by the whole family.
This game delivers hilarious fun and lots of laughs as kids work together and on their own to act, sculpt, draw, and solve puzzles, using the secret decoder mask to reveal secret words and hidden answers. Whether they're sculpting a chocolate-chip cookie out of CRANIUM CLAY or racing around the house to find something they can balance on their elbow, kids will be thinking, creating, and laughing out loud with CADOO. They may even discover talents they didn't know they had.

Simple setup and easy instructions make CADOO the perfect game for any occasion -- birthday parties, after school, holidays, rainy days, any day!

Have you played Cranium Cadoo? We would love to hear what you think about this game.

Looking for ideas for more games? Check out our website at http://www.3andupgames.com.au/
We have recently added a number of new games and all our games are high quality, good value and provide fun learning opportunities.

For fun ideas to kick off a family fun night from the makers of Cranium Cadoo check out http://www.hasbro.com/games/cranium/everyday_play.cfm

Our first game profile.

Hello all.

Every now and then we will post a game profile.

These profiles will give you information about a specific game, including the educational benefits of the game, rules and any other useful information we have.

Beat the Bear:



A very popular little game that reinforces recognition of single sounds. Played similar to traditional lotto, players try to match the sounds on their board before the picture of the bear is completed. A fun way to assist beginner readers learning the sounds - b, c, d, h, l, m, p, r, s, t.
Perfect for kids 4 and up however 3 year olds will have blast aswell.

Contents: 4 colourful vinyl mats ( 25cm x 33.5 cm), Laminated sound cards (to be cut from included sheets), Laminated bear cards (to be cut from included sheet)

Unfortunately we can't find any links relating to this game.


Visit the 3andupgames beat the bar page: http://www.3andupgames.com.au/site/1436498/product/02-LBB


Cheers


Matt Coward

Welcome!

Welcome to the new www.3andupgames.com.au Weblog.

With this Blog we plan to provide information relating to educational games for children.
We will post our quarterly newsletter, activities, links, game profiles and general information and discussions relating to educational games for early learning.
If you have any questions about educational games or early learning we will do our best to provide you with useful answers and resources.
We look forward to hearing from you.

Cheers

Matt Coward