Orchard Toys Two by Two > Reviews > Two by two and sail away

Author's product rating:   

Age Group	3 - 5 years
Wear and Tear	Average
Value for Money	Average

Advantages:	Educational game
Disadvantages:	Bit tedious

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Two by Two

Another game produced by Orchard Toys

This encourages children to take turns, communicate and play cooperatively.

This is designed specifically to link with early Leatning goals, encourage observation and personal and social skills, and to encourage observation.

Who is it for?...

This is a game for 2-4 players and is recommended for ages 2-6. However, I think 2-6 is quite a wide range developmentally, and would recommend it for the lower ages ie about 2-4 years

What do I get?...

Inside the box, you get:

• 3-D Noah's ark which is an ark made of thick card and decorated with animals and Noah himself
• 42 cards - 20 pairs of animals and 2 rain clouds. There are a good range of animals- butterflies, lions, iguanas, zebras, crocodiles (to name a few). One of the most useful things is to ask children to name the animals and discuss initial sounds.

How do I play it?...

The object of the game is to match all the animals post them in the ark and then "sail" away having found a rain cloud.

So…on with the game.

• Put the ark into the centre of the playing area, so that everyone can reach it
• Separate the rain clouds and pair up the animals then divide them into two piles with an animal in each.
• On the table, spread out one set of the cards, including the rain clouds, face down and deal the other set of cards equally between the players. These should be placed face upwards in front of the players.
• The first player should turn over any card in the centre of the playing area and should look to see if it matches any of the cards they have in front of them. If a match is made, then they post their pair of animals into the ark and play moves on to the next player.
• If the card does not match, then it is turned over again, face down, in the same position and play moves opn. This is the point at which memory comes into the game.
• Play continues until one of the players has posted all of their animals into the ark. Then, this player must try to turn over a rain card so that the ark can "sail" away

Remember…with 3 players, 2 pairs of animals must be removed from the set, and it's very boring with 2 p[layers, as little miss and I found out.

Where do I buy it?...

As with most of the Orchard Toys games, I buy the games online at www.orchardtoys.com, but a catalogue can be requested from Orchard Toys, Formlend Ltd., Keyworth, Nottingham.

How much does it cost?...

This costs £10.00

Other Products…

Great range of good quality products, often linked to the requirements of the National Curriculum, including:

Bus Stop
Chicken Out
Colour Match Express

If you are interested in looking for age appropriate games and activities, the website is worth checking out.

What do I think?

A useful game for very young children to encourage them to look carefully and to recognise pairs.

The pictures of the animals are bright and appeal to young children, and the ark is also brightly decorated with Noah waving merrily from the side.

As with most of these toys, they are well made, although I don't know how well the ark would bear up to continual useage because it is after all, just made out of card. One thing about the design-it is very difficult to get the cards out of the ark, and children will require adult help. Once posted, to get them out, there is a hoile at the base and they have to be taken out of this- quite tricky as the cards can't be shaken out, you have to get your hands up there.

Children find it quite interesting for a few games but it's not one to play all the time. I am going to recommend it because it is useful for all of the reasons I stated at the beginning but it's a game to play a few times and not every day. It is excellent for matching and sorting and for naming animals but there are all sorts of matching games children can be introduced to, and actually, you can make your own.

Good game if you can borrow it as children enjoy the fact that they are posting the animals and love it when the ark sails away, but try to do that- borrow it from someone.

Thanks for reading.

Daniela xx