Yo ho ho and away we go! Kids gathered around to place their doubloons on the grid over a map of Shipwreck Beach (which doubles as a clever storage bag for game pieces). Players took turns turning over two gold tokens to find a match, using Jake’s spyglass to decode secret clues. Finding a match, they flipped over the timer and raced to grab the same stand-up treasure–a bell, tiki, hat, sack of gold, or urn–snagging them with the foam sword. We had quite a laugh as older brothers were playing, got their first match, started the timer, grabbed for the sword but it was missing. Soon, toddler Sam entered the room brandishing the sword in his oblivious world of pretend play! We convinced him to give it up and continued our treasure hunt. The winner collected the most treasures. A great blend of physical and mental play (visual memory, matching, fine and gross motor skills), this game includes props that invite role play. My players were “playing pirate” as soon as we opened the box, tapping language skills as they took the game play to a new level of creative story telling .