Let's Play: Puppy Trek

There's a new game in town!
One of our favorite bloggers, Megan of Sweet Pea Littles & her kiddos played Puppy Trek, a game created & produced in Eugene, & she's sharing her thoughts with us today!
Hooray!

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We were recently offered a copy of the fresh-off-the-press, designed and produced in Eugene board game called Puppy Trek. As we are a big board game-ing family, we were thrilled to check it out!

My kiddos are 8, nearly 5, and 2.5, so this game, which is marketed for ages 5 and up, seemed perfect for our crowd. The littlest obviously needed some help - really he was just on my team - but he still could be involved and feel like he was positively participating. 

At least, that’s how I think he felt. It’s hard to tell, with a toddler. Ha!

Anywho. The game comes with a board, some puppies to move around the board, some resource cards, a few dice, and some bonus puppy cards (my kids were thrilled about these). The object of the game is to move your puppy along the board and be the first to reach home. Along the way, you can use your resource cards to move bonus spaces ahead, or to send other players backwards. The path has several animal habitats you can visit, and deciding which ones to visit/if you’ll visit them works kiddos’ strategy building skills. The resource cards give tasks such as doing jumping jacks, imitating an animal, or spelling a word. It’s not necessary for kiddos to read independently because the cards don’t have to be kept secret. 

I think the best part of this game is how pretty it is, and also how it also sneaks little bits of learning about nature. My kids think it’s fun, and it’s simple enough that we don’t have to refer back to the directions every time we play. Also, the game includes some bonus puppy cards, which don’t relate to the game at all, but that my children love. They’re basically like dog trading cards - they list facts about different breeds of dogs.

On the other hand, it doesn’t really have a clear objective, other than being the first to make it home. It’s a pretty straight forward “move from start to finish” sort of game. It’s also not cooperative at all - which is totally fine and great! But be aware of the competitive aspect if you’ve got kiddos who need practice with that sort of thing. ;) 

The game doesn’t teach much of substance - not nearly enough to qualify it as educational at all. But it does seem like it teaches the values of adventure and friendship, and those are obviously valuable qualities. 

Board games are so great for both family time as well as one on one play time. This game is great for groups as well as just a pair. Teaching kiddos a new game can be a bit of a chore, but the patience, sportsmanship, and other skills that kiddos work on through games are truly so important.

I would recommend this game to any animal loving kid and their family!

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Megan Defferding runs Sweet Pea Littles, an awesome kids consignment clothing site & she is the mom to three super fun boys who love to find great stuff to do all around Lane County!

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Puppy Trek is available to order on the Puppy Trek website & at The Elephant's Trunk at 5th Street Market or Valley River Center.