DJ received this My Very First Games – First Orchard Game by Haba for his 2nd birthday a year ago. It said on the box 2+ but DJ wasn’t really ready for it last year. He didn’t understand taking turns and the goal of the game was lost on him because he WANTED the crow to eat the fruit and couldn’t be bothered with rolling the die. He played with it for a bit and then ignored it for a long time so it got out in the garage and forgotten for months.

Today he remembered it and asked to bring it out. I was amazed at how different it was to play the game with him! He was really into taking turns and was interested in who would win, us or the crow. Of course he still liked the crow to eat the fruit, but he wanted the crow to win first.

He enjoys trying to roll the die, which involves holding it tight in his hands, shaking them up and down and then dropping the die. He hasn’t quite figured out how to let the die roll in his hands. He loved my excited response when a color rolled and my woe when the crow got to move. At one point, he and I both rolled blue several times in a row when we were out of blue. I started teasing that the die was stuck, shaking my finger at it, telling it to stop that. DJ squealed with glee each time. I think he wanted it to come up blue again. I was really impressed when DJ rolled a basket, which allows him to choose a fruit of his choice, he always chose the one with the most left. A strategic move to ensure we win!

DJ loves to repeat things these days and this game was no different. We played it several times. After the first time, he counted on his fingers “one, two, two times, let’s play it two times”. Then when that game ended, he counted on his fingers again “one, two, three, let’s do it three times”. After the next game he just held up all five fingers and said “lots, let’s do it lots of times!” He cracks me up.

Anyway, here is a close up of the game. All the fruit, crow and die are made of wood and are rather large. I put a standard size matchbox car (red truck) in the picture so you can see how big they are. It’s a cooperative game, the players against the crow so there is no worries of hurt feelings. And the main game play is based on recognizing colors, so easy enough for the youngest players.

I’m really glad DJ asked to bring it out to play again. I had a lot of fun with it.