Who put Rooster Roy in charge of putting the animals to sleep? You know he’s much better at waking them up! That’s the challenge in this perfect starter game for kids, around a theme they love–farm animals. Set up the straw stack so each of the four animal groups–cows, pigs, cats and lambs–have a cozy corner to sleep. The rooster stands atop the haystack, in charge of night duties. He must get the babies to sleep before their parents return. Fly the rooster to an animal who is awake and roll the large die to see your task of putting an animal to sleep or having the rooster wake him up with your best cock-a-doodle-doo. Kids caught on to the rules as we played and quickly favored rolling the rooster so they could wake up the animals (and even cheated a little to get it!). A simple first game, “Evening In The Stable” also became a venue for pretend play as little players added dialogue, “Wake up pig” and “The pig wake up!” Learning language can be fun.

Available at HABA: Click here