Flexible Parenting Reviews

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Sunday, September 14, 2008

Noodleboro Review

As the mother of a five year old, I'm always working on my son's manners. I want my older son (OS) to be polite not only because it's important, but because my two year copies everything that he does, right down to impolite language. I was intrigued when Mom Central announced that they were looking for bloggers to review Hasbro Noodleboro.

The idea behind the game is that you and your kids pretend to be on a picnic. The game comes with a plastic picnic basket, picnic item tokens, and a picnic blanket game board. Each player picks a color (if there are only two of you, each player picks two colors). The players need to collect all of the picnic items in their color. In the basket are circular chips that correspond with the foods on the boards. When it's the players turn, he politely asks if he can take a token from the basket. You need to reply that they may. They then say "thank you". If the token matches one of the items that they are collecting, they put it down on the matching space on the board. If not, they can place it on the center of the board and take another discarded token. Whoever collects the items to complete their picnic first wins. If a player continuously forgets his manners, the other players can ask him to return the token to the picnic basket and to try again the next turn.

My kids seemed to enjoy it. It's a pretty easy game with lots of opportunities to practice manners. My kids were quick to point out if I forgot to say "you're welcome" to them. Even my two year old was able to participate in this game. He did need gentle reminders to leave his tokens alone, and he also needed guidance deciding whether to keep a token or discard it. He had fun, though, which is what matters.

The game also came with a book and a CD called a Very Pleasing Picnic. The book tells the story of an impolite little girl named Rachel. Rachel and a group of kids have a picnic. The other kids are all very polite. Rachel decides that she would like to be an ant because ants don't have to say please and thank you so she waves her magic wand and become an ant. Rachel discovers that being an ant is not all that she hoped it would be, and she transforms back into a polite little girl. My kids enjoyed this story. The back of the books has tips for parents and the words to some of the songs on the CD. The CD also has some manners reminders, songs and an audio version of the story. It makes a chiming sound whenever the kids need to turn the page although my son listened to it without the book. In fact, they listened to it several times. Whenever the CD came on, multiple encores were requested. They particularly liked the story and the Please and Thank You & The Crabby Grabby Ant Song. That song also made my husband chuckle.

posted by Alex Elliot @ 3:18 PM 0 comments

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Name:	Alex Elliot
Home:	MA, United States
About Me:	Professional Mom of two cats, a dog, an ant farm, and oh yeah...two boys: a 5 year old and a 2 year old. Also found in my house is my husband who is known on this blog as The Big Giraffe.
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