Encourage Early Counting With Shelby's Snack Shack Game #educationalinsights

How did I introduce my daughters to early learning? By songs, rhymes, educational games and repetition. Songs and rhymes are nice because my daughters learn by listening to them and after a while, singing to the song and rhymes. Educational games help a lot because they have fun playing and at the same time they learn something from the games. Repetition of the names of animals and things, shapes, numbers and letters are just as important because this helped my daughters retain, recognize and associate them with how they look like.

The Shelby's Snack Shack Game is an educational game from Educational Insights for children ages 4 to 10. It was a finalist for the 2014 Toy of the Year Award and has won several awards including:
- 2013 Parent's Choice Silver Honor Winner
- Good Housekeeping - Best Family Board Games
- Today's Parents Magazine - The Ultimate Toy Guide (2013)
- Canadian Toy Testing Council - Best Bet Seal


The Game includes the following:
- Colorful Board Game
- Shelby Squeezer
- 40 Bones
- 4 Bowls
- Double Spinner

The rules of the game are very simple and easy to understand that even my 3 year old daughter understood it the first time I explained it to her.

The rules are:
1. Spin the first spinner to determine your play.
2. Spin the second spinner to see how many bones you win or lose.
3. Use the Shelby Squeezer to pick up the bones and put them in your bowl.
4. Collect the most bones in your bowl and you win.

When I opened the box, my daughters couldn't wait to set it up. Here are my first impressions of the materials inside:

- The bones were super cute and a bit rubbery.
- The bottom side of the box doubles as the "beach" where the bones are placed. It's very colorful and the pictures were lively.
- The Shelby Squeezer is also very cute (I kept saying it's cute but they're all cute!). It's very easy to use and my daughters can hold it properly.
- The feeding bowls are made out of cardboard and are durable.
- The double spinner is also made out of thick cardboard. It's also durable and as of now, still non-bendable. :)


My daughters insisted on doing a video on how they played the Shelby Snack Shack Game. :) They've been watching egg surprise videos and how-to videos on you tube and were inspired to do their own videos. They'll be very happy if you clicked like on their video. :)

Okay my thoughts about the Shelby Snack Shack Game:

- This game is perfect for preschoolers as well as older children (my 6 year old loved it!). It's very simple and the rules are very easy to follow. Both my 3 and 6 year old daughter had fun playing.
- Although my 3 year old daughter can already count up to 15, the Shelby Snack Shack game teaches young children counting from 1 to 5 through repetition. The spinner only has up to 5 as the maximum number of bones to be collected or stolen.
- The game is perfect with minimal supervision meaning, I can do the laundry, cook or clean the house while my daughter plays this game.
- 40 bones is too much for 2 players. My daughters took almost an hour to finish a game. Although they didn't get bored and wanted to play again, I would suggest cutting the number bones in half, that's 20, to make a game faster. :)
- No batteries needed! In today's times, children's toys are almost always battery operated. This is a simple and fun game with no batteries needed!
- The Shelby Squeezer helps in improving dexterity and hand-eye coordination. My 3 year old is left-handed and didn't have any problems with using Shelby to get bones.
- Early addition and subtraction is introduced. In "taking away" a bone or "getting a bone", my 3 year old was introduced to the early concept of addition and subtraction. My 6 year old already knows how to add and subtract small numbers so this is particularly helpful to younger children.
- The game is easy to set-up and clean up. Since my daughters know how to play the game already, they just take it out and set it up and they play together.
- Since there's only 1 Shelby Squeezer, my daughters needed to share and take turns. This is a problem for both of them and with this game, they were very happy to share and take turns to use Shelby.

I don't have anything bad to say about the Shelby's Snack Shack Game because it's a simple yet fun and educational which is very easy to understand. It's perfect for young children and encourages early counting.

You can purchase the Shelby's Snack Shack Game on Amazon for $15.55 with free shipping if you have Prime.

You can also visit the Educational Insights' social media sites:

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a sample for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I tried personally and believe will be good for my readers. No other form of compensation was received. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”