Review: Cooperative Board Games from Peaceable Kingdom

A few years ago, when my oldest son was three or four, I was searching for board games to buy for our family and came across a company called Peaceable Kingdom.  I loved their mission: “Make good, do good, be good!”  (Read more about it on their website – it’s very inspiring.)

I purchased Count Your Chickens and was very impressed that it did not require competition between players, but instead encouraged everyone to work together towards a common goal.  I grew up on games like Monopoly and had never really considered the possibility of a board game not requiring one person to win and everyone else to lose.  Cooperative board games – it was a brilliant idea!

So when the opportunity came to review some more games by Peaceable Kingdom, I was very excited.  All the concepts of the games are so clever – they are fun, unique, and perfect for young kids that may be sensitive to “losing.”

Now that I have two children who are old enough to play board games (4 and 6 years old), it’s awesome to have games that promote cooperation instead of competition between them, as well.  It ensures game time is fun time for everyone, and reminds the kids that working together is more fun than “winning” anyway.

Handy tip: If you want to learn more about these games (and see the many others that Peaceable Kingdom offers) you will definitely enjoy the Game Demos on their website.  These are short videos which actually show how you play the game.  They are very helpful when deciding which games your kids will like, too!

Cooperative Board Games:

Please note these games were chosen for my young children but there are also Peaceable Kingdom games for older kids, as well!

**Amazon affiliate links included

Stack Up! requires players to work together to stack the 12 blocks before the Block Smasher arrives and knocks down the tower.  Cards give players challenges as they work to stack each block as a pair.  I love that the game has three “levels” to make it easier for younger kids, and more challenging for older ones.

Feed the Woozle is a game where you roll the dice to get a certain number of funny food cards for the Woozle who is set up a short distance from the players.  Next you spin the spinner to find out how you get to him (doing something like jumping), then you use the spoon to “feed” him.  It is a great game for coordination, and the kids love the hilarious food cards as well!

Stone Soup is a matching game of ingredients for making soup, plus a few fun additions.  There are “fire out” cards that could potentially put the fire out, and a “magic stone” that can reverse one of the “fire out” cards.  The players have to work together to get all the ingredients into the pot before the fire goes out!

Count Your Chickens has players round up chicks as they go through the game, using the spinner to move for each turn.  Bonus chicks and foxes make things more interesting.  The game is great for counting practice, as well!

Buzz! is the most complicated of these five games, and I usually partner with my younger son (who just turned four years old) to play.  Players roll the dice to move about the board collecting nectar for their honey pots.  Everyone tries to get back to the hive before the bear gets there!

Aren’t the games so clever?   We love them!  Which would your kids enjoy?

Visit the Peaceable Kingdom website and get updates about their newest offerings on Facebook.

To read about other character education resources I love, click here.

I was provided with Peaceable Kingdom products to review for this post.  All opinions are my own.  To read more about reviews on my website, visit this page.