Each Sunday we make time to sit down together as a family and to either watch a movie or to play a board game. Rather than moping over the weekend coming to a close, we try to distract ourselves from the week ahead with some rest and relaxation as a family.
Playing board games is hugely beneficial to all involved, especially children. Board games can teach children a vast array of both simple and complex life skills including:
- Learning to take turns
- Building patience and understanding of others
- Learning how to accept loss
- Building concentration skills
- Learning how to read others facial expressions and body language
- Building tactical thinking skills
- Learning how to deal with competition
- Exercising and keeping the brain active
- How to deal with pressure and time limits
- Learning how to work effectively as a team member
The 5 Second Rule Junior Edition Board Game
We were recently sent the ‘5 Second Rule Junior Board Game’ to play and to review. This is a game that I’ve been interested in purchasing for some time now and very much looked forward to playing.
I have previously seen ‘The 5 Second Rule’ (adult edition) being played by others whilst working in the pub. From observation it seems to be a fairly popular party game, most likely as it follows a simple concept, requires minimal equipment/ pieces, promotes huge amounts of interaction for all involved and takes a relatively short amount of time to play.
Whats Included?
Upon opening ‘The 5 Second Rule Junior Board Game’ we found that the game includes:
- 1 x Game Board
- 6 x Player Pieces
- 1 x Twisted Timer
- 200 x Question Cards (containing 400 questions in total)
- 1 x Instructions/ Rules Sheet
How Do You Play The 5 Second Rule Junior Board Game?
Suitable for children ages six years and above, ‘The 5 Second Rule Junior Board Game’ is for three to six players. Alternatively players can create teams to play against each other, enabling more players to take part in the game.
Each player places their piece at the start position, the youngest player is the first to play. The person on his/her right draws a card and reads it out loud a parent or older child might wish to help with the reading of the card. Once the card has been read, the timer is started and the first player has five seconds to give the correct answers.
As titled, ‘The 5 Second Rule’ allows players five seconds to give a certain number of answers to a particular question. The number of answers required for each question is dependent upon the age and ability of the player, the rules suggest that less able players should only have to give two answers whereas the more able players should give three answers.
Whilst the rules state that you can adapt the required answers to either two or three we actually suggested just one answer would be enough for our three-year old given that the game is designed for six years and over.
If the player manages to give the correct amount of answers they are then able to move one space forward. The next player to the left then has five seconds to answer the same question but cannot use any of the answers previously given by themselves or other players for that card.
The game continues in a clockwise fashion until someone is unable to answer within the allocated time, they are then unable to move up a space. The person to the left of the player who failed starts with a new card which is drawn from the box, the player to their right reads it out loud and game play continues.
The first person to reach the finish by providing the correct answers within the allocated time wins the game.
Putting The Game Into Practice
We decided to split into teams to make the game a little less stressful for our children, they could then chose whether they wished to answer question or pass it onto us parents. Given practice and a little time the children got into the swing of the game and were quite happy to provide answers.
I was expecting the game to be fairly simple for us adults given that this is the Junior Edition. However, I was wrong, it is amazing how hard it can be to think of three things in just five seconds when put under pressure!
The kids found it really amusing watching us adults guessing random answers as our brains continued to fail us given the short amount of time we had to answer each question.
We were almost half way through the game when our son suddenly became quite distressed by having to answer questions in such quick succession. We decided to change the rules a little and put the timer away, removing the pressure and offering him the chance to enjoy game play without any expectations.
It may seem really easy to name three flavours of crisps, three spicy foods, three safari animals or even three places to run, but try doing it in under five seconds whilst being watched by others. It can be really difficult and can often result in some random and rather silly answers, that’s all part of the fun though!
Pricing And Where To Buy The 5 Second Rule Junior Board Game
‘The 5 Second Rule Junior Board Game’ currently retails for £12.99 at both Argos and Toys R Us. There is also an adult edition of this game suitable for ages ten-years and over currently priced at £19.99.
Final Thoughts
Despite having some minor upsets, we greatly enjoyed playing this game. We have already said that due to the ease and speed of play, we will be taking ‘The 5 Second Rule Junior Board Game’ with us when we go out for meals with the children to play around the table. It is certainly an ideal party game which will no doubt provide us with much fun in the future.
I would thoroughly recommend this game, it is ideal for children and adults alike as it requires quick thinking, promotes interaction and overall is great fun to play.
For further information upon ‘The 5 Second Rule Junior Board Game’ visit the University Games website.
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Product Rating
Disclosure: I was sent the above product for the purpose of this post however all opinions are my own.