Peaceable Kingdom is a company that makes board games that emphasize cooperation rather than competition. Players work together toward a common goal helping to build their strategy and problem solving skills while following directions and taking turns. These simple games are fun and a lot less likely to leave a child in tears than traditional board games that only have one winner. There are 5 different games in the Peaceable Kingdom line for ages 3 & up. All games are made using 100% green ingredients including soy based inks and corn-based plastic. Instill the life lesson that it doesn’t matter if you win or lose, it’s how you play the game–with compassion, team work and cooperation. Peaceable Kingdom games retail for less than $15 each.
We received Hoot Owl Hoot! and Count Your Chickens and I played both with my very excited four year old. I was thankful not to have to play another round of Chutes and Ladders. Both games had a similar concept. In Count Your Chickens, you use a spinner and move Mother Hen to the image that matches the one the spinner lands on picking up the same number of chicks and putting them in the hen house. If you land on a fox though, you must remove a chick from the hen house. The object is to get all of the chicks into the hen house before Mother Hen gets there. There is only one Mother Hen which all players move on the game board when it’s their turn. Everyone wins or loses together! There is a lot of counting in this game so it’s perfect for those learning to count.
Hoot Owl Hoot has a little more strategic play. Players must get 3-5 owls (depending on which skill level they chose to play) back to their nest before the sun rises. Each player gets three game cards to start which will have either a colored circle or a sunshine. A player must play a sunshine if they have one which advances the sun token one step closer to sunrise. If a player doesn’t have a sunshine they may choose one of their other cards to play and advance any of the owls to it’s next space representing that color. If an another owl is occupying the space it may fly over it to the next one of the same color. The played card is placed in the discard pile and another one is drawn each turn.
While this game is fairly simple (made for ages 4+), Jackson who just turned four, didn’t really catch on to the strategic part at first. In fact, he really wanted to draw a sunshine despite the fact that I kept explaining the object of the game. Still, we had a lot of fun playing it and I’m sure after a few more times, he’ll catch on. I love how all players work together to get the owls back to the nest. Older kids can discuss which owl would be the best to move to advance farther in the game. I honestly had fun with this game. It beats Candyland any day!
A complimentary product/service was provided for this review, however, all opinions expressed are our own. We were not compensated in any other way. See Mommies With Cents disclosure policy for more details.
