Orchard Toys Review & Giveaway - Piggy in the Middle Game

Congratulations to  @mrswebster147.  You are the lucky winner.  Please either email or DM me your name and address for me to pass on.  Well done, Mich x

I do love it when I get an email from Orchard Toys asking me if I would like to review another of their products. Without a shadow of a doubt I know that I will receive a British made innovative and educational game or puzzle arrive in the post that will delight my children.

Piggy in the Middle is no different.  The object of the game is to achieve savings of £5 and reach one of the finish spaces.

You play the game by rolling the dice and moving around the board, if you land on a spend or save space you collect a card and it instructs you what to do.  You have to spin the spinner to see how much either you pay to the bank (you spend) or the bank pays to you (to save).  JJ adored being the banker, this was his big brother duty.  If you are really lucky you might get the piggy bank card and then you can claim all the money in the piggy bank (which will have got there by people landing on different coloured piggy bank spaces and having to pay 50p in the piggy bank). Once you have managed to save £5 you make your way up the board to any one of the finish spaces.

Without sounding a bore and as if I am the champion of Orchard Toys let me tell you why we liked this game so much -

• The packaging is sturdy and lasts, no silly broken corners after a few weeks.
• The board breaks into jigsaw pieces for small storage and again is a real sturdy card with a sort of laminate wipe clean cover
• There is a cute little red piggy bank with it (need I say more? lol)
• The game is good fun, it is advertised for ages 5-10 years and I played it with my just 4 year old twins and 8 year old and they all loved it.  The 4 year olds needed a bit of help with keeping track of the money but they got the hang of the game very quickly.
• The game really does bring the whole family together for some fun
• It teaches my kids how to handle money and ties in with the national curriculum for maths, how can I not like that?

The game took us a while, about 45 minutes but that might have been because we had younger ones playing with us and dh and I had to help them. It did not feel too long though, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Piggy in the Middle retails for £11.50 and I believe it is really good value for money. You can buy it direct from Orchard Toys HERE and I must also say they always ship really fast and package the item well.

Would you like to win your own Piggy in the Middle game? 

• Mandatory - leave a comment and let me know how I can contact you if you win (email, Twitter ID)
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Giveaway Terms and Conditions 

• The winner will be chosen at random
• Open to UK and Ireland residents only
• Giveaway closes at 12 noon on Friday 16th September 2011
• The winner will be contacted within 3 working days of the competition closing
• The winner needs to contact me within a week of my announcing the winner or I will draw again
• The prize is not transferable and there is no cash alternative
• The game will be sent direct from Orchard Toys

Disclosure: We were provided with this game free of charge for the purposes of the review.  I was not instructed what to write, the words are my own and I remain honest.

The LeapPad Explorer's a Hit at our House!

There has been a revolution in my house, the young ladies have discovered digital gadgets and it is all my fault.  For 4 years I have kept them away from all things electronic and insisted they stay my babies and play with traditional toys and their imagination only but I think their starting at school full-time has made me realise that my 4 year olds are growing up and that in this day and age that means them getting to grips with all the new gadgets.


So when we were offered a brand new LeapPad from Leap Frog to review I eagerly said yes and now I have bedlam, two young girls wanting to play on the tablet.  Will they play together?  Oh no, they both want it on their own and the kitchen timer has become my best friend, as I time how long they are allowed. The only thing I can be grateful for is that at near 8 and with the savvy of a 10 year old JJ is not that interested in it and has gone back to the laptop and his DS.

Being the complete novice I am I asked Dh what makes the LeapPad better than JJ's DS?  Why is it needed?  and he informed me that it is far better for youngsters like our girls as it is educational as well as fun. Each of the games give verbal instructions as you start and play them so that the little ones do not have to fathom it out for themselves. Also the screen is much larger and better quality than those of the small hand-held games consoles.

As well as using the pre-loaded content such as the art studio, story studio and pet pad you can also download games, e-books and videos for your children to enjoy.  The prices starts from £3.50 for a download and that is really reasonable. The kids are enjoying Jewel Train and Vegetable Stew at the moment. The part that JJ does enjoy is the built in camera and video recorder. He is loving using the software which allows him to manipulate the photos and make us all look like Father Christmas or a gruesome ghoul!

I have to be honest and say the part that has driven me crazy is that the LeapPad is not rechargeable, it has gobbled up AA batteries like there is no tomorrow. This is an expensive business, so I will need to invest in a 9V charger so the kids can play with it plugged in to the electricity.

The LeapPad retails for £79.99 and is available from all good toy retailers as well as from Leap Frog direct. If you had a Leapster previously then all the games are compatible and you can use them in your LeapPad too, to that's a bonus. I can see this being the must have Christmas present for 2011!

In a nutshell:
Look and design   5/5
Ease of use for a young child    5/5
Educational Value   5/5
Interest factor for a young child   5/5
Interest factor for an older child  2/5 (guide age is 4 - 9 years)
Diversity and quality of games/ books/ videos available  5/5
A complete hit in our house!

I'll leave you with some fun facts you didn’t know about LeapPad!
• You can record 120 minutes of video, which equals a feature length film longer than any of the three Toy Story movies, or for our budding geniuses, 3 short film submissions for an Oscar.
• Children can take 30,000 pictures, which is approximately one picture a day for 82 years.
• Children can make 1,548,288 combinations of pets, which is 91 times more animals than the 17,000 at Berlin Zoological Garden, home to more animals than any other zoo in the world.
• Create 15,000 pieces of art, which is more than double the number of existing paintings created by Van Gogh, Monet, Picasso, O’Keefe, Michelangelo, da Vinci and Dali combined.


Disclosure:  We were provided with a LeapPad and £15 download card for the purposes of this review.  I have not been instructed what to write and I remain honest.