The Noodleboro Picnic Basket Game

I love to play board games with Maya while her baby sister is napping. It’s a great way to spend quality one-on-one time together. Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders are two of our favorites. Being able to reinforce counting and color recognition and teach her social skills, like taking turns and good sportsmanship, all while having fun really is priceless.

I’m thrilled to announce that Hasbro has done it again! Our new favorite is the Noodleboro Learning About Manners Picnic Basket Game. Maya loves having picnics so this game was an immediate hit before we even opened the box.

It’s so hard to have a perfect picnic when troublesome little ants want to steal your food! By saying “please” and “thank you”, you chase the ants away, and collect all the items you need to share a nice lunch. You start off by setting up the gameboard, which looks like a checkered picnic blanket. The picnic items (lemonade, sandwich, apple, etc) are printed on different colored tokens. Choose the color that you want to collect, and sit on that side of the board. The youngest person plays first, by using their manners to ask the other players, “May I please take a token?” They then say “Thank you,” close their eyes, and take a token from the basket.

If the token matches the color of their items, they place it on top of the matching item. If it doesn’t, they put it anywhere on the picnic blanket, so another player can collect it on his or turn. There are 5 ants in the picnic basket as well. If you get one, it’s okay! Just put it on the blanket, and it’s the next player’s turn.

If you forget your manners, other players are allowed to remind you, but forget too many times and your token goes back in the basket! The game ends when one player collects all 5 of their picnic items, so it only takes a short time to play. No getting distracted or bored before it’s over. In fact, Maya usually wants to play it over and over and over again!

Included in the box are a companion CD and a storybook that enforces the social skills taught in the game. We always like to sit and read the book together before playing. Sometimes Maya prefers to read it along with the CD instead. Mommy isn’t so good at doing all the different voices, I guess!

Maya’s 4th birthday is coming up soon, and another Noodleboro board game is on her wish list! There are two others to choose from:

• Learning to Listen Pizza Palace Game
• Learning to Share Fun Park Game

These games retail for approximately $19.99 and are recommended for ages 4 and up. I had a blast watching Maya play the game with 3 of her friends. It’s neat seeing them be so polite to each other, for a change!