With my newborn daughter, a mere two weeks old come tomorrow morning, sleeping peacefully just a go-go-gadget arm length away, my three-year old and my wife sat down to a game of Hi Ho! Cherry O. The classic Milton Bradley game was just handed down to my family yesterday from my brother’s clan whose two kids (age 7 and 9) have outgrown the basic counting fun Cherry O has to offer (the game is recommended for children ages 3-6).
Hi Ho! Cherry O is billed as a child’s first counting game and while that is not 100% true for my daughter (she has been enjoying my ad-hoc sugar packet counting game in restaurants for at least six months now) this kiddie board game does mark the first organized and structured math game she has ever played. The principle action of Hi Ho! Cherry O is fairly simply. Each player (there can be up to four) “sits” under a cherry tree with a bucket. In the middle of the board is a spinner with landing spots that will have each player adding or removing cherries from their bucket. The children will learn to count the number of cherries they are allowed to pick from the tree and ADD to their collection and also the number they must SUBTRACT from their stash because they have landed on the image of a hungry dog or bird, or that of a spilled bucket o cherries!
Insanely simple, yes, but brilliantly conceived for a toddler/preschooler to learn basic beginner math without ever realizing that they are learning anything – which frankly, in my opinion, is the least painful way to learn any subject matter. By innocuously teaching addition and subtraction, Hi Ho! Cherry O will delight any young family interested in introducing math concepts to their little ones.