3 years old

Learning Social Skills with the Smelly Wellies Game

13:27

There is nothing better than getting a brand new game from Orchard Toys to try out, we are big fans of all of their games and think they're a fantastic way to learn lots and spend time indoors when it's too cold and rainy to be outside.  So of course we were very excited to try out the new Smelly Wellies Game.


The game focuses on finding matching pairs of wellie boots, which is a great skill for young children to develop and is perfect for Ivy who is three.  We can discuss the different patterns on the boots and get excited when we find a matching pair.


The game is also great for turn taking, for developing memory skills and for general social skills.  We are getting to a point in our family where Ivy is just happy to play games and have fun, she's starting to understand the rules more and is excited to be a part of the fun.  However, Ethan has reached an age (at 5) where he is much more competitive and not very happy if he doesn't win.  So playing Smelly Wellies was the perfect opportunity to work on the matching skills with Ivy whilst working on social game play skills with Ethan.


They are both quite good at waiting their turn to play the game, which is a great first step.  The next thing that I am teaching them with games like this is to watch what the other players are doing, so if they turn over a wellie boot that you need for your card, then you keep an eye on it (or a finger on it in Ivy's case) so that you can choose that one on your next turn.  This is also working really well and helping to keep them both engaged whilst it is the other players' turns.


Then at the end of the game comes the tricky part, Ivy does not mind at all if she doesn't win and is happy to keep playing until she completes her card.  But Ethan is not happy if he doesn't win, so I've been spending a lot of time explaining to him that it's all about the fun of the game, about learning the skills (and helping to teach Ivy the new skills that she needs to learn).  Then that we are happy for whoever does win, that we congratulate them and are proud of them (as we would want them to be for us).  It's an ongoing lesson, but hopefully we are making progress!


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* This is a review post, we were sent the Smelly Wellies game from Orchard Toys in order to play it and write our honest opinions about it.*

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