Rainy holidays have necessitated a lot of board game playing and Hello World! (thanks, Mum!) has really captured the children’s imaginations – and upped their foreign language skills. Essentially it involves discovering how the residents of over 50 countries say hello, from bawo in Nigeria and wademi tawa in the Amazon rainforest, to lorena in Easter Island and mari mari in Patagonia, via the more familiar bonjour and guten tag. Each card has a picture of a person, their country and language, plus the word hello written in that language and phonetically – all beautifully illustrated by L’Atelier Cartographik. We love any sort of bingo – we have dog, bug and monster already – but what I really like about Hello World! is that it requires a bit more thought than just matching pictures (although you could play it like that for younger children), they actually have to read the word phonetically and check it’s the correct country as hello is just hello in a lot of places. Brilliant – and educational, but don’t tell the kids – fun for all the family (up to nine players). Currently £9.99 (or £14 with the matching book, also lovely) at The Book People.
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