Our family loves to have a weekly game night! My kids look forward to these nights so much because games are fun. They don’t really understand it, but game nights also bring us closer together as a family and help them build better relationships with their siblings. Usually we play the classic games, but often times our younger kids don’t (or can’t) enjoy the same games the older kids and adults do. I am always on the lookout for more games that are appropriate for little kids. Peaceable Kingdom to the rescue!
Peaceable Kingdom specializes in cooperative games. What is a cooperative game? Instead of a competition, the players work together as a team to complete the goal. Cooperative games build confidence, encourage everyone to participate, and teach kids to share.
I’ll be honest, I was a little worried the kids would get bored without the competition side of the games, but I was VERY wrong. Almost as soon as I explained to use team work instead of the traditional win-or-lose aspect, the kids started working together and helping each other.
First we played Race to the Treasure! Strategy is the key to this one. The kids draw a card (Ogre or path) and use path cards to make a path to the treasure, but along the way they have to collect 3 of the 4 key tokens (to open the treasure at the end) and they have to do this before the Ogre beats them there!
This one is better suited to kids 5+ but my little guy still had fun – his favorite part was moving the Ogre closer to the treasure (imagine that!). Cooperative success: they helped each other line up the paths to get to the keys and treasure. Find out more about Race to the Treasure on YouTube or at Mindware.
Next, the kids played a couple of rounds of Sunny & Stormy Day. This is a super cute matching game. First, you read the story book then you try to match the sunny and stormy parts of Max’s (a super cute Hedgehog) day. There are 3 different levels of difficulty on this one to suit the littlest players, on up to the 8+ age group.
You can play face up and help youngsters identify the matches, play traditional matching, or add the extra moon cards. When you add the moon cards and you turn one up you have to assemble a piece of the bedtime puzzle. Try to make all the matches before you assemble the six-piece puzzle.
Cooperative success: if someone was struggling to find a match the kids would help them remember where to look (or where to avoid the moon tiles). Sunny and Stormy Day is sold exclusively at Target.
Last, but not least we played Hoot Owl Hoot! In this one the little owls (aka the kids) try to get back to their nest before the sun comes up. Each card has a color or a sunshine. You move your owl ahead to the circle of that color or the sun moves a square closer to rising. This one is rated for ages 4+, but Drewdle (my 3 year old) played this one easily.
We came upon our only difficulty of the evening with this one – all the owl tokens are the same color so the kids had a hard time remembering which one of the owls was theirs. Overall it didn’t really matter since the goal is to get everyone to the nest, but it was a little confusing. Cooperative success: if someone got behind the kids gave up their color card to help them move forward (without me even prompting them!) Check out more about Hoot Owl Hoot! in this video or at Mindware.
Peaceable Kingdom was so kind to send us this awesome game night fun pack including the three games I’ve mentioned, stickers, tattoos, and pens! The kids had so much fun playing the games and getting the little extras.
