Thursday 17 October 2013

Wordsearch Junior from Drumond Park ~ age 4+ Game Review

Wordsearch Junior is a reworking of the classic Wordsearch by Drumond Park to make it accessible to a younger audience. The game is really simple and very quick to understand and is, as it suggests, competitive word searching.  I have to say I really wasn't sure at all how this would work, but as soon as I saw it I was impressed.


The playing surface is made up from 3 plastic pieces that are engineered to fit together perfectly. The plastic is actually a lot stronger than it first looks, and not flimsy or brittle.


Specially shaped cards are placed within the construction, that turn along with the transparent dimpled surface and reveal the word or picture combination that needs to be found.


There are 3 different levels of difficulty denoted by the 3 different colours of card -
  • Blue ~ picture pattern cards for those who are not yet readers. 
  • Red ~ picture hint cards give a picture clue but still require the player to look for the right word
  • Green ~ word-only cards that have no pictures and encourage independent reading


The game is brilliant for encouraging new readers to look for patterns and logic among the letters. It requires good concentration and reasoning skills. Without realising it the players learn to recognise word formation and familiarise themselves with new words and syllables.

When a player is the first to spot the revealed word or pattern then they can cover the corresponding letters or pictures with their counters, even replacing an opponents previous counters if necessary. The winner is the person who has most counters on the board when all of the words or patterns have been covered. If someone runs out of counters then they instantly win and the game is over.



Wordsearch Junior has a suggested age range of 4+ and I think that's exactly right.

My exactly 5 year old thinks it is a brilliant game and is eager to lap it all up. He loves playing with the picture hint cards because he knows he's stretching himself, but he can do it. He can only actually spell a couple of the words outside the game, but within it he can look and work out how long the word is and where all the sounds are.

My 3 1/2 year old wants to play the picture pattern game but he's finding it incredibly hard to remember the 3 picture pattern because his brain just isn't mature enough yet. This is really helping him and each time he tries he gives it a better shot. I'm absolutely certain that within a couple of weeks he'll be able to do it, and that new skill will help him in many ways aside from within this game.


Wordsearch Junior has an RRP of £18.99 and I think that's a very fair price. It is a good game that will facilitate your child's learning while they have fun and because it has different ability levels it will last them a few years. Drumond Park games are available from a range of stockists including larger toy shops, supermarkets, Argos and Debenhams.

My 5 year old really likes this game, he just wants to find the words and is really keen to try all of the cards. It's really captured his attention and enthusiasm.



We were sent a copy of Wordsearch Junior to review

102 comments:

  1. This look like a fab game! Great for young children learning words.

    My favourite game is monopoly.

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  2. We're going to be trying this out after our holiday. Like the idea that we can progress to different levels as Monkey starts to read etc. Looks good

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  3. My favourite family games are The Game of Life or a lesser known game called Hotel which is so much fun!!
    My kids favourite game would have to be one of the Orchard games...probably spotty dogs at the moment

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  4. Lewis currently like to play..... Doggie doo!!!! Typical boy & toilet humour!! :)

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  5. I love Monopoly but love playing Junior scrabble with my little ones as they can all join in now x

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  6. Our fav family game is Payday

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  7. Monopoly - my son buys everything!!

    Laura Harris

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  8. We Like Guess Who and Monopoly

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  9. favourite family game is frustration

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  10. our favourite family game is pictureaka

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  11. We love games! At the moment our favourite is tiddly winks!

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  12. We love most board games, our favourite at the moment is Doh-Nutters :-)

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  13. Hard to choose - love cluedo - we also love doh-nutters!

    Ashleigh

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  14. Our current favourite is Simon Says , the kids love doing silly things!

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  15. yahtzee for the older kids and cupcake game for youngest

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  16. Connect Four always seems to bring out the competitive side of our family!

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  17. Has to be Monopoly right? Certainly get to find out who has a competitive streak :P

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  18. we like payday - its so fast moving that it never gets boring

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  19. Snakes and Ladders

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  20. Trivial pursuit is a favourite in our house :)

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  21. twister .....everyone joins in

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  22. (Sarah Boorooandtiggertoo)
    Monopoly is always good fun

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  23. we love snakes and ladders here xoxox

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  24. junior scrabble

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  25. has to be ludo help with counting and teaches fairness

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  26. We love Junior Monopoly or Lego Championship :)

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  27. Me and my children like to play dominoes and jenga!

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  28. Just bought cut the rope hope its fun, snap is popular here

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  29. we love a game of monopoly even if the kids do cheat! lol

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  30. Scrabble is our favourite game x

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