Competition: Orchard Toys Dinosaur Race

by 98 Comments

The biggest sporting discussion to happen this year won't be about Andy Murray winning Wimbledon. No, this year he gets a break, and the nation debates how many gold medals Britain will get in the sporting event of the decade! The Olympics need little introduction to most people, but for children they are an unknown quantity; how do you explain it, especially to a pre-schooler?

Well, introduce them to the concept through this rather nifty new game from Orchard Toys.

Dinosaur Race is an athletic style race-game involving between two and four dinosaurs to race around the track at the same time! That is the bit that bamboozled me at first, so I wanted to higlight it.

Let me explain with the aid of some pictures:

1. Assemble the race track with the jigsaw type pieces.

2. Lay out all the double-sided sports discs alongside the spinner. (It is worth noting at this point that each one has a different combination of pictures on both sides, this confused me at first as I thought all swimming discs would have a javelin on the other side, for example.)

3. Line up your dinosaurs on the starting line.

4. The youngest member of the family spins first. The spinner has four coloured arrows on it, that work in conjunction with your playing piece. Each player notes the sport that their coloured arrow is pointing to, and takes that number of sports discs. There are a different amount of each sport shown on the discs. That may mean one player has three discs with a javelin on it, another has five swimming discs and a third has two weight-lifting discs. This is how you all move simultaneously around the board.

5. Each player moves the correct amount of spaces around the board, then returns the discs to the playing area but upside-down this time. This will create a new and different amount of sports discs for the next person's go.

6. Take it in turns to spin the spinner, counting out the right amount of discs each time, and moving the appropriate number of spaces.

7. Continue play until all players have crossed the board and assigned a 1st, 2nd or 3rd place.  There are gold, silver and bronze medals to give to each player. If you're playing with four players, bad luck on this occasion. However, because there are four of each colour medal, you can continue to play cumulatively and see who ends up with the most medals of each type.

Dinosaur Race is another winner from Orchard Toys of whom I am a big, big fan. I'm not the only one in this household; all three of us enjoy playing them, and we tend to play at least one or two different games a day. For the vast majority of the games that we own that are aimed at aged three years and over, we play them with no problem, maybe a slightly watered down version, but we've enjoyed them since he was two. He's now two and two-thirds and I am not sure he would have been able to play this a few months ago due to the complexity of understanding everyone moving at the same time. He's very much all about 'your turn now daddy!', so this variation of turn-taking threw him at first. Therefore I would advise this one is for the three-ten year olds as specified on the box.

It's a very fun game, visual and attractive. It also opens up a world of sports to The Boy that he might otherwise have not been privy to. Developing his understanding of the world around him at this age is vital, and this game helps to develop them, along with the obvious pre-mathematical (matching and colour recognition) and mathematical development (counting the discs and playing spaces), language development (discussion) and social skills (turn-taking).

I'd award Dinosaur Race a gold medal!

Orchard Toys have been very generous and are going to give one of you lucky readers a copy of Dinosaur Race (worth £11.75). If you'd like to be in with a chance of winning, please fill in the Rafflecopter form below.

Please note that all entry mechanisms must be completed, including using twitter!



a Rafflecopter giveaway

I was given a copy of this product for the purpose of the review. My opinion is honest and unbiased.

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Comments

  4. says

    I love watching Curling…very random, but could watch it for hours. And we like to support hubby when he's running – in fact the kids and I have challenged him to complete a half marathon this year and a marathon next!

    The only sport I partake in, is running (around after the kids!).

    Reply

  9. says

    I'm a huge sport fan and will watch almost anything so I love it when the Summer and Winter Olympics roll around every two years. Just wish we had tickets for the games in London!

    Reply

  10. emma Cella says

    My FAVORITE is Swimming!
    I am rooting for Michael Phelps…I know he can get 8 gold medals…hes just so amazing!!! As for the women's swimming..the its yay Natalie Coughlin 🙂
    other than that…I love the gymnastics…

    Reply

  15. Nikki Webber says

    I dont play any sport myself unless you include kicking a football around the field with my toddler lol – I do love watching the six Nations rugby though – Come On WALES!!!!

    Reply

  24. EMMA WALTERS says

    def a watcher now, used to love netball but its been a looooooong time! like watching athletics so looking forward to summer 🙂
    @emmav6

    Reply

  28. SARAH LAMBERT says

    I like watching football as long as they are winning lol both my kids like sports as well Not that keen on Olympics though (yawn) x

    Reply

  30. Alli Marshall says

    My favourite sporting event is the cycling – I love watching the skill of the riders in the velodrome & I also love watching the Tour de France; I became addicted to it when pregnant with Harry!

    Reply

  35. Hilda Hazel Wright says

    I'm not much of a sports person. For 'doing' I like to walk for miles in the hills so that isn't really a sport as such!! For watching, I like to watch snooker sometimes but thats it.

    Reply

  37. says

    I love all sorts of winter sports but my absolute favourite is Biathlon – it's the winter sport to watch when you are German. Really everybody loves it and so do I. I even got my OH to like it…

    Reply

  55. Sarah Robertson says

    My favourtie sport to watch is football….its always on the TV at home and I watch my OH play every Sunday 🙂

    Reply

  92. SHARON WOODRUFF says

    favourite sporting event is probably the grand national… its about the only sport i know the rules to… (they run to the finish line) hahaha…. liking on fb as sharon gutteridge woodruff, tweeting as @likemeorlumpit <3 <3

    Reply

  96. Lesley Bain says

    I love watching tennis, and golf…..can't choose which one I prefer – as long as it is a sunny day I'm happy 🙂 x

    Reply

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