Tag: table top games

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
  1. Remove everything from the game box, then scatter the acorns onto the tree on the inside bottom of the box.
  2. Give each player a tree stump.
  3. The youngest player takes the first turn. Play then passes to the left of that player and onward.
  4. 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.
  5. 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 – 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
  1. Snap the 2 sides of the honeycomb into the base.
  2. Slide the honeycomb shaped cardboard piece into the base behind the sides and lay the whole thing down.
  3. 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.
  4. Gently set the bee on the top center honeycomb and you’re ready to begin!
  5. 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.
  6. 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!
  7. Enjoy!