board game – Page 3 – Whole Heartily

How to Play – The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel

Part of the fun in raising Zoey is finding things that delight and educate her; I want to find fun, creative board games to play with her during our family game nights! This week we played The Sneaky Snacky Squirrel Game by Educational Insights for up to 4 players!

Zoey has loved this game since before she even knew how to play! She would pull everything out and play with the Squirrel and the acorns, honestly it’s surprising that there are no missing pieces! Then we learned how to play the game together, and she loves it even more! She loves picking up the acorns with the squirrel squeezer; we find it super fun and easy collecting and replacing the acorns to the tree stumps and back.

Let’s play!

IN THE BOX

A game-board (part of the box)
A squirrel squeezer
A spinner
20 acorns in five colors
4 tree stumps

INSTRUCTIONS

Remove everything from the game box, then scatter the acorns onto the tree on the inside bottom of the box.
Give each player a tree stump.
The youngest player takes the first turn. Play then passes to the left of that player and onward.
On your turn, hold the squirrel squeezer, spin the spinner, then follow the directions below according to your spin. Then it’s the next player’s turn.
- Color: If the wheel stops on a color, use the squirrel squeezer to grab a matching acorn and place it in a matching hole in your tree stump. If that hole is already full, skip your turn.
- One acorn: Pick any one acorn from the tree and use the squirrel squeezer to pick it up and place it on your tree stump.
- Two acorns: Pick any two acorns from the tree and use the squirrel squeezer to pick them up and place them on your tree stump.
- The Sneaky Squirrel: Use the squirrel squeezer to steal any colored acorn you need in your tree stump from another player’s tree stump.
- Sad Squirrel: Pass the squirrel squeezer to the player on your left and skip your turn.
- Squirrel Storm: Oh no! A furious storm blew all of your acorns back into the tree! Put them back and skip your turn.
If you’re the first player to collect all of the acorns to match the ones on your tree stump, you win!

ENJOY!

How to Play – Sophie’s Seashell Scramble

Part of the fun in raising Zoey is finding things that delight and educate her; I want to find fun, creative board games to play with her during our family game nights! This week we played Sophie’s Seashell Scramble by Educational Insights for up to 4 players!

Zoey has loved this game since before she even knew how to play! She would pull everything out and play with the Sophie and the seashells, honestly it’s surprising that there are no missing pieces! Then we learned how to play the game together, and she loves it even more! She loves picking up the shells with the Sophie pincers; we find it super fun and easy collecting and replacing the seashells to the mats and back.

Let’s play!

IN THE BOX

A game-board (part of the box)
A Sophie pincer
A spinner
20 seashells in five patterns
4 seashell snack mats

INSTRUCTIONS

Remove everything from the game box, then scatter the seashells onto the seascape on the inside bottom of the box.
Give each player a seashell snack mat.
The youngest player takes the first turn. Play then passes to the left of that player and onward.
On your turn, spin the spinner, pick up the Sophie pincers, and follow the directions below according to your spin. Then it’s the next player’s turn!
- Pattern: Find a shell that matches the pattern (the color of the shell doesn’t matter) and use Sophie to pick it up and place it on your seashell snack mat.
- One Shell: Pick any one shell from the seascape and use Sophie to pick it up and place it on your seashell snack mat.
- Two Shells: Pick any two shells from the seascape and use Sophie to pick them up and place them on your seashell snack mat.
- Big Wave: A big wave is crashing the shell-collecting party. All players lose a shell back to the seascape.
- Hungry Otter: Use Sophie to take any shell from another player and place it on the matching space on your seashell snack mat.
- Otto the Octopus: Take any shell from for seashell snack mat and place it on the table next to Otto. Spin the spinner, if you land on Otto or the pattern that matches the shell you chose you can take your shell back and take any other shell from the seascape. If you don’t land on Otto or the pattern that matches your shell, Otto tosses your shell back into the seascape.
If you’re the first player to collect all of the shells to match the ones on your seashell snack mat, you win!

ENJOY!

How to Play – Hi Ho! Cherry-O!

Zoey has loved this game since before she even knew how to play! She would pull everything out and sort the fruits by color or put the puzzle together, honestly it’s surprising that there are no missing pieces! Then we learned how to play the game together, and she loves it even more! She loves counting out the fruits; we find it super fun and easy collecting and replacing the fruit to the baskets and back.

Let’s play!

IN THE BOX

A game-board
A spinner
A puzzle
10 “apples”
10 “blueberries”
10 “cherries”
10 “oranges”
4 baskets

INSTRUCTIONS (CLASSIC)

Place each basket in the game-board hole to the left of its matching color tree/bush.
Each player chooses a tree/bush and places the matching colored fruit in each of the game-board holes.
The puzzle is only for co-operative games so place it back in the box.
The player whose birthday comes next takes the first turn. Play then passes to the left of that player and onward.
On your turn, spin the spinner, then follow the directions below according to your spin. Then it’s the next player’s turn.
- One Fruit: Pick one fruit from your tree/bush and put it in your basket.
  - Two Fruits: Pick two fruits from your tree/bush and put them in your basket.
  - Three Fruits: Pick three fruits from your tree/bush and put them in your basket.
  - Four Fruits: Pick four fruits from your tree/bush and put them in your basket.
  - Bird or Dog: Someone’s nibbling at your fruit! Take two fruits out of your basket and place them back on your tree/bush (if you only have one fruit, put that one back. If you have none, do nothing).
    - Spilled Basket: Uh-Oh! Take all of the fruits out of your basket, and place them back on your tree/bush.
If you’re the first player to have all 10 fruits in your basket say “HI HO! CHERRY-O!” You win!

INSTRUCTIONS (CO-OPERATIVE)

Place each basket in the game-board hole to the left of its matching color tree/bush.
Each player chooses a tree/bush and places the matching colored fruit in each of the game-board holes.
Break up the puzzle and place the pieces facedown near the game-board.
The player whose birthday comes next takes the first turn. Play then passes to the left of that player and onward.
On your turn, spin the spinner, then follow the directions below according to your spin. Then it’s the next player’s turn.
- One Fruit: Pick one fruit from your tree/bush and put it in your basket.
- Two Fruits: Pick two fruits from your tree/bush and put them in your basket.
- Three Fruits: Pick three fruits from your tree/bush and put them in your basket.
- Four Fruits: Pick four fruits from your tree/bush and put them in your basket.
- Dog: Remove one fruit from your basket and place it back on the matching tree/bush (if you have none, do nothing).
- Spilled Basket: Remove two fruits from your basket, and place them back on your tree/bush (if you only have one fruit, put that one back. If you have none, do nothing).
- Bird: Turn one piece of the bird puzzle face up. Every time you turn over a puzzle piece, try to fit it into the bird puzzle. If you can’t do this leave it face up until it fits.
The players win if they pick all the fruits and say “HI HO! CHERRY-O!”, before the puzzle is completed. The bird wins if the puzzle gets completed before all the fruit is picked.

ENJOY!

How to Play – Save the Bee

Part of the fun in raising Zoey is finding things that delight and educate her; I want to find fun, creative board games to play with her during our family game nights! This week I found a game called Save the Bee by Gamie. Which is essentially a Jenga-type game with a bee atop a honeycomb. Each player takes turns removing pieces of the honeycomb and whoever drops the bee, loses.

Zoey loves this game and has pretty much contributed to the bee falling every time we’ve played, but that does not stop her from enjoying it! Or requesting that I stack the honeycombs back up immediately to play again. My only gripe would be that it is slightly inconvenient to re-stack the honeycomb, but other than that, it is a wonderful game to play with children!

IN THE BOX

A base
2 sides
45 honeycomb pieces
A cardboard honeycomb shape
2 wands
A spinner

INSTRUCTIONS

Snap the 2 sides of the honeycomb into the base.
Slide the honeycomb shaped cardboard piece into the base behind the sides and lay the whole thing down.
Arrange the individual honeycomb pieces within the base and sides until they reach the top, then gently stand the whole thing upright and carefully remove the cardboard piece.
Gently set the bee on the top center honeycomb and you’re ready to begin!
Each player gets a wand and then takes turns spinning the spinner and removing a honeycomb piece of the same color they land on. If they land on space with multicolor honeycombs, they can remove a piece in the color of their choice. If they land on the prohibition symbol, they lose a turn.
There are no rules that mention what happens if a player accidentally knocks out more than one honeycomb piece, we’ve just decided to let them fall and keep playing!
Enjoy!

Tabletop Game – Let’s Play Blokus!

Tabletop Game Blokus by Mattel Games I’m always on the look out for a fun, entertaining way to pass the time like a good tabletop game! Blokus was introduced to us by my husband’s parents and we enjoyed playing it so much we purchased it straightaway!

Tabletop Game Blokus by Mattel Games Blokus is a two to four player strategy game that can be played with reckless abandon, or the studied care one would reserve for Chess or Checkers.

Players each choose a color and a corner, then decide who goes first; turns proceed clockwise around the board. To begin, each player must use their first turn to lay down a piece that covers their base corner’s square. Play then continues with each player placing one piece each turn that must touch the corner of one of their colored pieces, but only the corners! Full sides of the same color may not touch one another.

Tabletop Game Blokus by Mattel Games When a player reaches a point where they cannot place another piece, they are done. The game ends when no player can place anymore pieces. Once the game ends the players count the number of squares in their unplayed pieces, the player with the lowest number of squares left, wins!

Tabletop Game Blokus by Mattel Games My only complaint is based on the packaging or storage. The version we purchased has no storage for the 84 colored pieces which is surprising and disappointing. I use four sandwich bags, one for each color to store them. This cuts down on the amount of time spent sifting through the pieces before starting each game!

Tabletop Game Blokus by Mattel Games If you’re looking for a fun, fresh take on a timeless strategy game that feels like a spiritual successor to Checkers and/or Chess, check out Blokus!