Shelby's Snack Shack Game Review

As a part of Amelia's 5th birthday celebration I was given the opportunity to review Educational Insights' Fun Game Shelby's Snack Shack.

The box is the game board and it comes with:

4 doggie bowls

40 bones

1 double game spinner

1 Shelby Squeezer

and

An instruction guide

In this game, the players are taking turns with the Shelby Squeezer to collect the bones that are buried in the sand. The person who collects the most bones by the end of the game is the winner. The game ends when all the bones are collected.

To start the game we tossed the bones onto the game board box.

The youngest player goes first, spinning the left hand spinner first. There are 4 different kinds of spaces:

Bones

Hungry Pug

Busy Pug 

Seagull

If you land on one of the bone spaces you need to spin the right spinner to see how many bones to pick up.

If you land on the Hungry Pug you need to spin the right spinner to see how many bones to "steal" from other players. 

If you land on the Busy Pug you lose a turn because the dog is busy playing with a flip flop.

If you land on Seagull you need to spin the right spinner to see how many bones the seagull steals and puts back in the sand.

So, Hannah got to go first. She is a year under the recommended age, but she really enjoyed this game. She did use her hands more than the Shelby Squeezer, but toward the end of the first game she was definitely using it better and spinning the spinner with greater ease. 

Using the adorable Shelby Squeezer helps children to develop their fine motor skills/pre-writing skills. This game is very similar to Sneaky Snacky Squirrel, which we reviewed last year. I believe this game was actually easier for younger children because the bones are easier to pick up than the acorns in Sneaky Snacky Squirrel. I thought the bones were going to be hard plastic, but they have a soft pliable feel to them, making them easy to pick up. 

Additionally, when you pick up the bones you just have to deposit them into the bowl, as opposed to Sneaky Snacky Squirrel where you have to place them in specific holes on your stump. We love both games, but I can see Shelby's Snack Shack being used more by the younger children.

Children also work on number recognition, counting, beginning addition and subtraction throughout the game. So this game was great for all the girls. 

Hannah is learning to recognize her numbers and count.

Amelia is learning simple addition and subtraction.

And Tabitha is practicing her addition and subtraction, learning to figure the sums or differences out in her head. 

We did change one thing. As we are teaching the children it is wrong to steal, if we land on the Hungry Pug space we do not "steal" bones from other players. We go over to the other players and ask if they will share their bones. We also try to go to all the players or the ones with the most bones so the ones with less bones won't get so frustrated. 

The second time we played, the game seemed like it was going to go on forever because we kept landing on the seagull and losing all our bones. So, we just had to end the game. It would be simple enough to play with a time limit and the winner would be the one with the most bones at the end of the time. 

The children are working on taking turns, saying please and thank you and dealing with frustration. 

I would highly recommend this game, and would say a child as young as 3 could use it with supervision. This is such a great game to work on the above mentioned skills. 

You can purchase this game for $21.99 from Educational Insights.

Don't forget to stop by and see all the other fun and educational games Educational Insights carries. 

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The generous people from Educational Insights are going to give one of my readers their very own game. It will be one of the prizes in my Birthday Fun Celebration for Amelia's 5th Birthday. Stop back tomorrow for more information!

Click here to enter the Birthday Fun Celebration Giveaway!

Disclosure: I received Shelby's Snack Shack Game in exchange for my honest review. I received no further compensation. This did not in any way influence my review. I only recommend products I use personally and feel will be a good products for my readers.