Squiggle Safari

We took this game on a day away with our two children aged for and six. Although the blurb on the page says ages five and upwards it says four and upwards on the packaging. The game consists of a cardboard backing, with a tab that pushes out to hold the included pencil, a spinner and a pad for scribbles. To play you spin the spinner, which lands on one of an enormous number of animal names. You then take your pencil and turn the squiggle on the paper into the animal.The challenge of the puzzle is not too hard and my four year old was able to do a very passable giraffe and crocodile and include the squiggles on her goes through. My wife, children and I all had two goes each and everyone thought it was good fun, but two goes seemed about enough. We played without any time limit on the turns, and I guess you could include one if you need a bit of competition to make things more interesting. OUr game lasted us for about 15 to 20 minutes as my children took their time. I can imagine if you are stuck in an airport waiting for a plane this is a good way to keep them occupied but it won't do for hours.Despite the short playing time the cardboard backing was beginning to look frayed and of course the pad of squiggles will run out so it is not going to last much past one holiday trip.All in all a good game for young children when you are travelling.

I've just had a great value squabble free afternoon of pleasure playing `squiggles' with 4 of my grandchildren (aged 4 to 7). This is rather younger than recommended but all joined in with gusto - the youngest insisted on spinning the wheel until a `suitable' animal was selected. Also it was probably too many players at one time but we avoided possible squabbles by having the older children write out names of safari animals and adding background (clouds, trees, grass etc.) once squiggles were completed; and we also introduced X-factor voting on each squiggle. We tried the game on the kitchen table but realised it should have been better to keep for 2 children at a time on a car journey. It won't be long until the pad of pre-drawn squiggles is used up, but there is a keenness to draw our own squiggles on blank paper, and to issue challenges to someone else to produce a picture. It`s surprising what a simple toy can lead to ... .

Squiggle Safari allows young-ones to tap into their imagination, to a certain degree, and draw random safari animals, around a frame-work/outline already provided. This is dictated (should you allow it!) by a spinner at the top of the pack. Not only does it encourage drawing, but also writing the animals names down, helping children to identify and understand what they are drawing. I got this item for my 5 year old who really enjoyed it. Some of the `animals' he drew were very funny! It introduces small children to the wonderful world of art from a young age and the drawing pad itself is quite thick and should last a fair while.Although the pack comes with with everything you need, including a small pencil, I would advise you to buy some colour pencils to go along with this so the animals can be coloured-in!

My kids (12 and 7) were really looking to playing with this, I was dreading it as my drawing skills border on non existent.The basic set up appears interesting, with a spinner containing a list of safari animals which you then draw around a random, pre-drawn squiggle. Some of these were fairly east (anyone can draw a snake from a squiggle!) but some, such as a monkey are pretty tough.My kids enjoyed playing it, but thought they would have liked to make up their own squiggles. As I'm useless at drawing I got bored (and humiliated!) very quickly.Therefore I think you'd get the same fun by buying a pad, drawing a squiggle for someone and letting them create a picture on a given subject and seeing if people could guess it.Overall, an ok way to kill some time but with limited long lasting appeal.

This is a pad of paper on sturdy card and a spinning wheel with a couple of dozen animals around the edge. You spin the wheel and then draw whichever animal the spinner lands on using the preprinted squiggle as your starting point. It's a simple idea but perfectly presented to appeal to a primary school age child. Ideally they'd be adept with a pencil (provided) and able to read the animla names, and this would then keep them occupied for an hour or so. Smaller than I expected, though perfectly big enough to serve it's purpose, it's ideal to pack as a holiday distraction.

Played this endlessly with my 6 year old daughter - so much so that we got through the pad in a couple of weekends. It mentions 7+ but I feel that that is too old as my daughter never struggled with the concept or the design.Neatly packaged and would be ideal for travel or as a stocking filler - so much so that I now wish that I'd saved it for Xmas!Good tool to fuel the imagaination of a child whose eye's are opening to the world - will seek out similar on-the-go activities