Our Little Bitties Love Three Little Piggies

I’ve been eyeing the cutest collection of fairytale-based smart games in the Timberdoodle catalogue for months and months, but held off on buying them because my own kids had already outgrown the suggested age range of 3-6 years.

Now that I’m schooling my grandkids a couple times a week, I went ahead and ordered a couple of these one-player games to use with them. First, we tried Three Little Piggies.

I love almost everything about the game:

the bright, chunky game pieces: so easy for little fingers to handle
the clever, wordless storybook: allows little ones to “read” the story with as much or as little detail as they like
the variety of mental puzzles: includes four skill levels — starter, junior, expert, and master
and the nice sturdy box to keep it in: includes an illustration on the flap to help kids put everything back where it goes

Really, the only way I can see to make Three Little Piggies better would be to make the pages in the puzzle book a little thicker. Currently, they are thin enough that I fear they’ll get ripped with repeated use. Which is a concern at our house, because this game is definitely getting a lot of use — and not just by the 3-6 year olds!

This and the Red Riding Hood game I’ll be reviewing next is the first thing my grandkids ask for whenever they come see me. Even the older kids are lining up, waiting for their turn to play.

The object of the game is to get each pig safely in a house whenever the wolf is on the board, and to let them all play outside in the fresh air and sunshine whenever the wolf’s not around. The characters have to stay put during each round of play, and it’s sometimes a little tricky to figure out how to position the houses on the board so that all three pigs end up where they’re supposed to be.