We received this game as a birthday present when Noah was 3 and we played it for the next couple of years.  The premise is this…

Pippo, the waiter, needs to clear all of the dishes off of the tables.  Children take turns moving him around the restaurant piling the dirty dishes on his trays until they topple over.  The game requires patience and steady hands but is really about balancing the dishes equally so that they don’t topple.

Children use their fine motor skills to place the dishes on top of each other, but it is their spatial skills that are honed while playing.  They have to figure out that the larger dishes should go below the smaller dishes, that the round sides will not balance well and that the two sides need to be balanced equally.

This game is beautifully made; small wooden dishes come in a little drawstring bag.  The board is colorful and beautiful to look at.  Pippo himself is a little carved wooded figure with a large flat head that can be used to carry dishes as well.