Finn is a big fan of games on the iPad and iPhone these days, he's at a good age to understand them (3.5 yrs old) and will happily sit and play them independently, it always amazes me how they always just know what to do?! This is pretty useful when you've got a million chores to run around the house doing! We all need moments of time out from our little ones - be it for housework duties, in a restaurant when meeting friends for lunch or travel, so I have nothing against him having some 'iPad time' on the odd occasion. He's also become obsessed with You Tube videos - watching toy demonstrations and ninjago videos but we are trying to limit that as it's not the most educational is it? We much prefer him playing games such as Monster Mingle and Dinosaur Mix by Cowly Owl. All their apps encourage playful, creative exploration. We love the colourful characters, music and sound effects all of which are pretty fun. Monster Mingle has been a favourite for a while so we were pleased to hear they were bringing out a Halloween update. Especially great timing with half term on the cards so some more entertainment to keep him going. There seems to be a massive build up to halloween these days so this has been a good way to start getting Finn into the spirit of it!
With Monster Mingle you basically create a friendly monster by going around collecting different body parts. There's flying and swimming, all controlled by your childs finger, with lots of surprises and different landscapes to discover. Finn tells me swimming in the sea and feeding the monsters are his favourite bits. It's free play so there are no goals or objectives making it a calm game. Before I know it he will be playing fighting and killing games so I'm enjoying this innocent playful period whilst it lasts!!
The halloween update has 12 new body parts to find, hats to wear, fun magic potions, pumpkins filled with sweets and some other spooky surprises (we won't ruin it all!). Finn was particularly excited when he found the pumpkin and fed the sweets to his monster.
I have to say I have played the game myself and it's quite addictive. There is also a camera snapshot mode so they can take pics of their creations and save them on the camera roll. I always love finding these on my phone camera roll :)
The halloween update also comes with iMessage stickers for iOS 10 when you download it or update the app so I have been using these (pumpkins, skull, witches hats etc) to write halloween based text messages to friends. There is also a free printables activity sheet if you click here . It's always good to have activity sheets for half terms so I really recommend them. The sheets are made up of body parts from the Monster Mingle game and you just need split pin fasteners to join them up. This is Finn's first monster he made.... more to follow!
The game is recommended for age 3+ (but Finn has been playing this since he was 2) and we really recommend it if you're looking for something new to keep your little one entertained. Happy Halloween and please share pics of your kids with the monsters they have created on Instagram using #monstermingle and @cowlyowl tagged.
I'm really pleased to offer five free copies of the game to give away. Just leave your name and email in the comments box below and the first five people will win!
Buy the app here from the Apple iTunes store
*Please note this is a sponsored blog post but all opinions expressed are my own.