Small Games and Activities to Pack and Play When Out and Away with Kids
This is a sponsored article and the products were gifted to me, but all opinions are my own.
With springtime here and the the weather finally warming up across the UK, making plans for days out and trips away with the family all feel a lot more appealing now the sun is out and shining. As I start to plan a summer of fun with my kids, as well as planning where we go, something that I also think about in advance too, is activities to pack. From games and tech to snacks and books, long journeys and times when we are sitting for long periods on holiday, are always easier for us as a family, when I’ve planned ahead.
Ever since they were toddlers I’ve always had a bag of tricks to rely on when journeys are long and my children are getting restless. As well as a lot of snacks, I find having a few new activities and toys to bring out, can diffuse many a tense situation, when we are all reaching the end of our patience.
Not just on journeys either. However beautiful the destination may be, views and surroundings are mostly lost on my children, so I’ve found having a new game or book to keep them entertained when we are out for a meal or a drink in the evening on holiday has been priceless in giving us all that little bit of craved for peace, at the end of a busy day.
Mine are now a bit bigger now, so with age they have become a lot better at occupying themselves and actually a lot easier company to enjoy spending time together while relaxing. So, although I don’t necessarily have the same criteria I had when my own children where preschoolers, I still find myself packing things for them to do. but now when doing so, I also consider if they are activities that we adults will enjoy as well – as they then often end up activities that we will all then play together.
One such website I’ve had lots of different toys and games from in the past is Wicked Uncle. What I really like about it, is not only is it reasonable priced, their online toy shop is full of fun and unusual items that I’ve often not seen before and my children have always really enjoyed playing with all the items we’ve had from there.
For the purpose of this article, I was invited to choose some items from their website recently, to test out and review with my 11 and 9 year old, so I picked some that I think looked good to pack and enjoy on days out and holidays with children.
Lets find out what they were like…
Unicorn Stack, Balancing Game
Starting with a game we can play all together as a family, Unicorn Stack looked a small box and easy to do , so a good one for sticking in my handbag, to play on days out. The premise of Unicorn Stack is to take it in turns placing the unicorns on top of each other, to see how high you can make the tower. There’s 15 unicorns in each box (a mix of white, pink and blue) and its a perfect game to play in a restaurant or pub while waiting for food to arrive. Its also nice as it can be played alone with the challenge being can one person make the tower complete with all 15 unicorns on top of each other before they topple over. My 9 year old daughter loves unicorns and really enjoyed playing this when we went out recently. It’s a good size for a travel game and although the little pieces go scattering all over the table and floor when it topples over, they are not too loud or small, so nice and easy to gather up and use again.
Origami Art and Creations
I also chose this origami set with my daughter in mind as it something she has been trying this out herself recently after watching some You Tube video’s on how to fold paper into different models. So I thought this would be a great set for us all to try out when out and about as a family this summer. There are a few different sets to choose from on the Wicked Uncle website, ranging from £8.95 all the way up to £15.95, which is for an origami lantern kit where you can create your own set of lighting lanterns.
We went for the Art and Creations kit that enables children to “Explore the ancient art of origami with this easy-to-use kit. Simply follow the illustrated instructions to learn the steps for ten wonderful models, from a traditional jumping frog to a smart Emperor penguin and a peacock displaying its plumage. The kit includes 21 sheets of colourful paper with brightly printed designs and folding guidelines to follow, as well as a guide to basic origami techniques.” So far we have used this set at home, both times have been in the evening and its been a nice way to wind down after school, where we have chatted while folding and creating our own animals. The colourful designs are beautiful and you end up with these funky little animals that are great to keep and display.
IQ Puzzler Pro
The next activity from Wicked Uncle that we have been testing out is the IQ Puzzler Pro. This is the perfect size for a travel game – its a compact Perspex box containing small coloured balls that you then use to build designs following the instructions in the enclosed book. My eleven year old son loves it and it suits his logical mind perfectly. The puzzle book also contains lots of different levels, so it can be adjusted for all ages including adults, which made it a fun one to play all together.
Top Model Mini Musical Colouring Book
The top model colouring and design books have been popular in my house for a few years now – my artistic daughter absolutely loves creating different outfit and makeup looks from the books and we have had Top Model books from the Wicked Uncle website before. What I liked about this one in particular is, that it is smaller than most of the others so she can fit it in her bag when we go out to use in the car and she also loved the added musical element. In our experience these top model books are great whatever the age – as the simple face and body outlines on each page mean you can be as detailed as you would like and having both stencils and stickers in lots of the sets, means you can adapt the design to the age and ability of the child. My daughter has already ear marked this book as going in her hand luggage to do on the plane, when we visit Euro Disney in a couple of weeks.
If you are looking for some new toys or games to take away with you, Wicked Uncle is full of fun and unusual ideas that are reasonably priced with fast UK delivery . You can shop all the Wicked Uncle products right here.
