Board Game Review: Peaceable Kingdom
I love board games. As a kid, I often set up board games to play by myself and I still do this sometimes today. But now that I have kids, I can share games with them. And board games are great for teaching so many different skills. For those that I tired of Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders, I highly recommend games by Peaceable Kingdom. We have a few.
Hoot Owl Hoot
This game is designed for ages 4 and up and for 2-4 players. It is a nice, short, cooperative game. I love cooperative games in general, but its great for younger players to encourage teamwork. The goal of the game is to move all the owls (you can choose the challenge level, but my kids love all 6) from the start into the nest before the sun rises. Players are allowed to talk and collaborate to create strategies. Each player will have three cards. They can choose whichever card they would like to play, unless they drew a sun card, in which case they have to move the sun one space forward. The other cards are all a color which matches the spaces on the board. The player can choose any owl they want to move to the next available color that matches the color card they want to play. This means they may fly over owls on the same color. This has been great for the kids to experiment with different strategies. Sometimes, they want to take control of one owl and move only that owl. Sometimes, they choose to play their favorite color first without thinking about the board. Sometimes they want to work together on ideas and sometimes they want to do their own thing. Whatever they try, we then get to look at the end results and see how well the strategy worked. It's also a fun opportunity to talk about colors and nocturnal animals. It ties is really well with books like Little Owl's Night.
Race to the Treasure
This game is designed for ages 5 and up and for 2-4 players. It's another nice, short cooperative game. The goal of this game is to create a path to the treasure, collecting keys along the way. The players will work together to reach the end before the ogre gets to the treasure. The game starts by rolling dice to determine where the 4 keys and ogre treats will be placed on the game board grid. Which means your kid gets to practice reading the grid. Then the players will take turns drawing squares. They may draw a path piece, which they will add to the growing path by making sure it connects at some point. The path should go along, trying to get to at least three of the keys along the way to the treasure. There is one extra key on the board and a case of ogre snacks. If they draw an ogre piece, it will be added to the ogre path. The ogre snacks can be used to distract the ogre, removing one from the path. It's fun to see the path take shape. My daughter sometimes will make a story to go along with the game, which is a fun trip into the fantasy world she loves.
Dinosaur Escape
This game is designed for ages 4 and up and for 2-4 players. In this game, players work together to help the dinosaurs escape the island before the volcano erupts. There is a dice for moving pieces in this game, unlike the previous two games, but it is still cooperative game. The dice means a chance to practice counting and one-to-one correspondence as you move the dinosaurs. It also may land on the volcano, meaning you have to add another piece to the volcano. There is a memory aspect to the game, as there are tokens around the island of the three dinosaurs as well as fossils and ferns, etc. The dinosaurs must reach their matching piece in order to escape. My son loves dinosaurs, so this is a big hit.
Memory Palace
This game is designed for ages 5 and up and for 2-4 players. This is a little different from the other games, but as the name suggests, it helps introduce the concept of a memory palace to kids. We start by building the house, which is my kids favorite part. They love to try to figure out the best place for all the silly rooms and outside areas. Once the house is built, then the memory part begins. Players will draw animal tokens and place them upside down in the house, working together to tell a silly story as they go. For instance, remember the time a porcupine was in the bathtub or the bat flew into the bedroom. Every once in awhile, someone will draw a memory monster and then the real challenge begins. They have to try to remember all the animals in the house. If they retell the story, they may find this helps them to remember. Although they appreciate the challenge, that's not really their favorite part.
Hoot Owl Hoot
This game is designed for ages 4 and up and for 2-4 players. It is a nice, short, cooperative game. I love cooperative games in general, but its great for younger players to encourage teamwork. The goal of the game is to move all the owls (you can choose the challenge level, but my kids love all 6) from the start into the nest before the sun rises. Players are allowed to talk and collaborate to create strategies. Each player will have three cards. They can choose whichever card they would like to play, unless they drew a sun card, in which case they have to move the sun one space forward. The other cards are all a color which matches the spaces on the board. The player can choose any owl they want to move to the next available color that matches the color card they want to play. This means they may fly over owls on the same color. This has been great for the kids to experiment with different strategies. Sometimes, they want to take control of one owl and move only that owl. Sometimes, they choose to play their favorite color first without thinking about the board. Sometimes they want to work together on ideas and sometimes they want to do their own thing. Whatever they try, we then get to look at the end results and see how well the strategy worked. It's also a fun opportunity to talk about colors and nocturnal animals. It ties is really well with books like Little Owl's Night.
Race to the Treasure
This game is designed for ages 5 and up and for 2-4 players. It's another nice, short cooperative game. The goal of this game is to create a path to the treasure, collecting keys along the way. The players will work together to reach the end before the ogre gets to the treasure. The game starts by rolling dice to determine where the 4 keys and ogre treats will be placed on the game board grid. Which means your kid gets to practice reading the grid. Then the players will take turns drawing squares. They may draw a path piece, which they will add to the growing path by making sure it connects at some point. The path should go along, trying to get to at least three of the keys along the way to the treasure. There is one extra key on the board and a case of ogre snacks. If they draw an ogre piece, it will be added to the ogre path. The ogre snacks can be used to distract the ogre, removing one from the path. It's fun to see the path take shape. My daughter sometimes will make a story to go along with the game, which is a fun trip into the fantasy world she loves.
Dinosaur Escape
This game is designed for ages 4 and up and for 2-4 players. In this game, players work together to help the dinosaurs escape the island before the volcano erupts. There is a dice for moving pieces in this game, unlike the previous two games, but it is still cooperative game. The dice means a chance to practice counting and one-to-one correspondence as you move the dinosaurs. It also may land on the volcano, meaning you have to add another piece to the volcano. There is a memory aspect to the game, as there are tokens around the island of the three dinosaurs as well as fossils and ferns, etc. The dinosaurs must reach their matching piece in order to escape. My son loves dinosaurs, so this is a big hit.
Memory Palace
This game is designed for ages 5 and up and for 2-4 players. This is a little different from the other games, but as the name suggests, it helps introduce the concept of a memory palace to kids. We start by building the house, which is my kids favorite part. They love to try to figure out the best place for all the silly rooms and outside areas. Once the house is built, then the memory part begins. Players will draw animal tokens and place them upside down in the house, working together to tell a silly story as they go. For instance, remember the time a porcupine was in the bathtub or the bat flew into the bedroom. Every once in awhile, someone will draw a memory monster and then the real challenge begins. They have to try to remember all the animals in the house. If they retell the story, they may find this helps them to remember. Although they appreciate the challenge, that's not really their favorite part.
Gee, some of these sound familiar. I'll give your blog a shout out tomorrow.
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