I received the board game in exchange for this review.
In this age, when you can see all those toy advertisements everywhere, children can be very easily sucked into the sort of “age-appropriate commercialism” where they get lots of new toys, quite often, without an occasion, just because the parents can afford and the children demand to buy them. I’m not saying my children are not getting toys or treats for no occasion, but I’m very strict on what they can have and how often. If you follow me, you probably know my view on the teeny-weeny collectible plastic hell of toys: things those things cause a lot of harm on multiple levels. Those, generally all sorts of plastic crap (with Lego being the only exception), slime, glitter, etc. are all banned in our house. What they do get instead of them: random things picked up in charity shops (used toys), wooden toys and educational toys are what they are getting and we ask the family and our friends to respect this.
Playa Playa Board Game
I recently came across Ethiqana, a lovely online shop, that sells ethically sourced, sustainable, mainly handcrafted gift items. It is a social enterprise selling ethically sourced products that not only provide sustainable livelihoods to artisans but also promote eco-friendly living. Browsing their site I immediately fell in love with their eco-friendly board games. They kindly sent me one of their best-selling board games called Playa Playa, which is a beach-cleaning game, aimed at children 4+ years. You can also win one on my Instagram page!) It basically teaches the children to understand the concept of environment conservation and importance of cleaning the beaches. It also promotes strategy building and working in as a team. It is sustainably made from eco-friendly materials.
What we thought about it
Both of my children loved it: my girl is 3 years old and she picked up the rules no problem and my boy also really enjoyed it. Setting it up is part of the fun and it’s not complicated at all. Any game like this is very helpful small children with ASD in my view as it helps to visualise and practice actions. Later, he even added a small garbage truck to the game to transport the collected and selected rubbish to the recycling centre! (Really amazed me!)
About Ethiqana
Ethiqana is a certified social enterprise using sustainable products and a member of the national trade body, Social Enterprise UK. They are one of more than 70,000 social enterprises across Britain tackling social and environmental problems. As a result of being free of shareholders, social enterprises choose to plough their profits back into the business to deliver on their social or environmental mission. This might be getting homeless people off the streets and into work, or reducing the amount of waste that goes into landfill. These things help towards creating a sustainable lifestyle.
