Happy Hats, created by the makers of Bob Books, is a great little game for young readers. Unfortunately, my kids outgrew it long before I thought of writing this blog, so I have neither pictures nor a gameplay video for you, but hopefully, this written review will help you decide if it’s a game worthy of a space on your game shelf. Older kids will enjoy Silly Sentences to help them with reading.
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Perfect for early readers
If your young kids love Bob books, and are already pretty fluent readers of CVC words (Consonant Vowel Consonant words; words like HAT), this game would be perfect for you. If your kids are still working on their CVC words, I think this could be a good game for them, with a bit of help from you.
Each of the players chooses a character. Mat, Sam, Dot, and Mit are available. Around the edge of the board is the alphabet; vowels are a different color. When your character lands on a consonant, you use one of the cards in your hand to help create a word. For example, if you land on “C”, and have “-AT” in your hand, you can create the word “CAT”. When you land on a vowel, all you need do is match the first letter on your card with the vowel you landed on. So if you land on “A” and you have “-AT” in your hand, you can match those A’s. For each successful word or match created, you get to choose a hat.
Happy Hats is easy to make cooperative
I remember the rules being a little unclear, but we eventually just made it a family goal to fill out the whole alphabet. If someone had already created a word on the next spot, you just went to the next open spot, and tried to create a word there. For younger/less skilled readers, have them lay their cards out face up, and suggest a good one for them. Once they put the card up to the letter, it’s easier for them to read.
Happy Hats was rather short-lived for us; I think they’d both outgrown it before they were 6. You may be able to get them to play the game until about age 7 or so, but that’s probably it. Overall, however, this game was worth it for us for the extra practice.