Summer tips for kids, teens, and the young at heart

Half the summer holidays are behind us. Exhausted parents are counting down the days until the school year starts, and teachers are starting to twitch. Before it all kicks off again in September, you still need to keep your little ones entertained with something meaningful. Otherwise, they'll be forced to run around aimlessly and scrape their knees. Well, assuming those joys are still a thing and kids aren't just running around virtually on their phones…

We've dived into our wide range of products and picked out the most interesting tips to help you get some peace and quiet, at least for a little while.

Play is the best medicine

Board games develop tactics, logic, and cooperation—and if the players don't kill each other, they also build team spirit. Naturally, several interesting new titles have popped up that you shouldn't miss.

Creatures of Everdell

Everdell is a beautifully crafted card game from 2019 where you build a forest settlement for critters, gather resources, upgrade buildings, and try to lure in new residents. Despite its cute look, it's a well-designed and occasionally quite challenging game that will satisfy even experienced players. My Lil' Everdell is a lighter version of the original game by the same author, which younger players will especially appreciate, allowing them to test their skills against their parents. You'll get the same gorgeous illustrations and simplified mechanics that still offer plenty of room for fun.

One Stroke

You can never have enough party games. While some hardcore gamers might turn their noses up, non-gamers often enjoy this kind of casual fun, which eventually gives them the courage to try a "big game." It works, personally verified.

The team party game One Stroke brings a fun combination of elements we already know from elsewhere—drawing and pantomime. The clue-giver draws a mysterious word on the game sketchpad based on the prompt, connecting random symbols. Their task is then to use pantomime to guide the Guesser through these symbols. The goal is to guess the drawn word. Simple, fun, and suitable for players of all ages.

Mysterium Kids: Captain Echo's Treasure

They say if you're afraid, don't go into the woods. But we know that the forest is mostly fine at night, and the real spooky stuff happens regularly in mysterious, old, abandoned houses. And it's definitely not just about dangerous mold and tacky wallpaper. The Mysterium game family offers a cheerful and undemanding trip to a haunted house. A terrible crime happened there—murder, death, killing! The player in the role of the ghost walks around the house trying to guide their teammates to catch the culprit. The board game Mysterium Kids offers the same experience, just lightened up to be more accessible to smaller children. They don't even need to know how to read! And by the way, this game won the prestigious Children's Game of the Year award in the Spiel des Jahres poll. Quality guaranteed!

Metal Earth 3D Puzzles

Do you have a kid who is always tinkering, assembling, taking things apart, and in the best case, putting them back together? Are they reasonably handy and have they already realized that not everything needs to be shoved into their nose or mouth? And do they happen to like Star Wars? Then you've hit the jackpot! Metal Earth 3D puzzles is a series of metal construction kits that will keep any skilled builder busy for hours, resulting in beautiful, shiny models of iconic Star Wars machines. All you need to assemble them are small pliers and a dose of patience.

Forget going out, grab a book!

You can have your holidays planned down to the last second, but when the thermodynamics caused by the Earth's rotation decide otherwise, rain will wash away all your plans—along with weather you wouldn't even kick a dog out in. And maybe not a child either. We're prepared for that too. For the little ones, we have coloring books—for example, from Minecraft. The beautifully colorful Pokémon Where's Pikachu? book is in English, but you can easily get by without it. Older artists will surely appreciate the coloring book from The Witcher, where they can go wild with a red crayon (after all, a severed head does appear there from time to time…).

For teens willing to dive into the world of reading, we also have a great selection. And with a clear conscience, I recommend the same thing I spent several beautiful holidays with—Discworld. This cult series of forty-one books is an amazing source of humor, wisdom, and breathtaking stories. For me, it became one of the defining events of my life, and thanks to the work of Terry Pratchett, I am who I am. And those who know me will confirm that I could have turned out worse :)

Off to see the world!

Buying physical and digital goods is certainly nice, but sometimes it's really good to head out into the world and experience something. So we don't just push you to buy new toys, we've taken the liberty of selecting a few beautiful places in our country that every fantasy fan should visit at least once.

If you're near Kutná Hora and love Predators and Aliens, it's practically mandatory to visit the AvP Museum, where you'll find an atmospheric collection of film-inspired items, including drooling Xenomorphs and green-blooded space scum. The museum collaborates with the Film Legends Museums network in Prague, Poděbrady, and Kroměříž. These are also ideal trip destinations for movie fans.

And what about gamers? Do they have a place to play? They do! In Červený Újezd near Prague, there is the now-legendary museum of classic arcade machines, Arcadehry. Their barn next to a beautiful chateau is packed to the rafters with gaming history. I can only recommend a visit; it's fun for the whole family, easily for an entire day.

We'll stay in Prague for a bit longer. There's another place dedicated to gamers—Muzeumher Cibien’s Corner, which this time focuses on old game consoles, vintage computers, and arcade machines for up to six players. It's a place overflowing with gaming nostalgia. And then just hop on a train to Brno. That's where the great Fantasy Museum is located. Fans of fantasy themes, steampunk, Jules Verne, Karel Zeman, or Karel Čapek can admire exhibits up to three meters tall, created by the skilled artist, stuntman, and fantasy lover Tomáš Krištof.

And why not try a LARP or a wooden sword battle? On the community portal larp.cz, you'll find an up-to-date calendar of upcoming events. From the cult ones, we'd like to highlight the legendary Battle of Middle-earth at the end of July in South Moravia, the September Battle for Moria in the Moravian-Silesian Region, or the Warhammer battle, which is also suitable for younger and less experienced participants near Brno.

author Karel Krajča