Cariboo- Fuller's Mom's review

Fuller is enjoying all kinds of games these days. And he doesn't discriminate, he likes board games as much as the electronic ones. He might actually prefer the board games since it guarantees interaction with Mommy or Daddy.

We were thrilled Fuller received two board games this past Christmas. Zingo and Cariboo. We played Zingo for the first time tonight, so I will save a review of that game for later after we play a few more rounds. However, we have worn down the cards on Cariboo so I think it is safe for me to give a fair and balanced accounting of the game.

Overview
There are six bouncy balls you put in one of three holes at the top of the board. The balls roll around and settle in little divots under trap doors. (Make sure the trap doors are closed first!) On the top of the board are 15 trap doors labeled with different cards. The cards contain a varied number of shapes of various colors. In each shape is a picture and below the shapes is a word.

The child picks a card and selects a trap door based on the item on the card. If it reads "A" you look for a card with a word that starts with "A." If the card is yellow then you find a corresponding trap door with the color yellow. And what do you think happens if you pull a card and it reads "3?" Yup, you look for a corresponding trap door with 3 shapes. I'll let your imagination run wild with what you should do if the kid pulls a card with a triangle.

To open each door you use a purple key (or crochet hook if you temporarily lose the key) to see what is below the door. If there is a ball, you get to pick it up and place it in another hole on the side of the board. Once the sixth ball is placed in the hole a treasure box opens and the game is over.

Ease of use
When Fuller opened the gift on Christmas (thanks Tia! thanks Tio!) he immediately got the concept of opening the trap doors with the keys. He also loved dropping the bouncy balls in the various holes. And he thought the treasure in the treasure box was his to keep, so he popped that plastic purple jewel right off. Fortunately the makers of the game knew Fuller was like that and made it easy to put back in. Cranium did not supply the speech I gave Fuller to leave the jewel in the treasure box. I made it up myself.

We let him just discover the balls under the doors for a while, since we were still opening gifts. Later that afternoon we were able to pull out the cards and start with the matchy matchy. Fuller was able to amaze the various school teachers in the room with his school'n and was really sufficient at identifying the items on the cards and matching them with the trap doors.

Fuller's Mom's Thoughts
One of the objectives of Cariboo is to support the social mores of taking turns. As a parent I highly recommend kids learning to take turns as early as possible. As the parent of an only child, I waive my right to make my kid take turns when it comes to him playing this game with me. Instead when it is "my turn" I pick the card but make him find the corresponding trap door. I do this because I am honestly bored with the game. I find great delight in watching Fuller do it, encouraging him in exploring what he has learned, so I let him do it. Since the game doesn't heavily rely on competition, it can almost be a one person game. With supervision, of course.

Yesterday something happened. Fuller started to cheat. He would reach under open trap doors to get balls under closed trap doors. He wouldn't pick up cards but just try to open any door he felt like. And that's when I decided to mix it up.

We switched to the advanced version of the game. This involved flipping over the cards on the trap doors and opening the advanced card packs. It was very easy to do. So easy a three year old could do it. Not that he did. (But later I saw he had tried to switch the trap door cards on his own.)

The advanced version of the game uses lowercase letters (something Fuller knows but stumbles on) and numbers higher than four (he didn't recognize ten written "10" but can count to 10 just fine). And it was challenging! Fuller got more into the game again and I started to pay more attention to all the turns Fuller was taking.

I hope to have a playdate soon where Fuller gets a worthy opponent and he can practice taking turns with more people (cause really, Mom and Dad can be push overs).

I highly recommend Cariboo for the younger kids who need to practice their letters, numbers, colors, and shapes. I think for our son we might have to put the timer to it since his attention span for opening doors and playing with the bouncy balls is much longer than mine.