I’ve talked a lot about board games and how much Mr. Garland and I love to play them – we have a big collection and we play every single chance we get. One thing we’ve talked a lot about is how we want to introduce Jackson to board games as he gets older. Mr. Garland has been counting down the days until Jackson is old enough to play games since he was born, and once he turned two we quickly started to test out a few Haba games to see how he did with them.

Haba is a game and toy company that makes games geared towards kids two and up. They have flexible rules, they’re very simple, and they’re extremely easy for kids to follow along with. We weren’t sure if Jackson would be able to handle it because he’s so young, but he picked up on it pretty quickly and now he absolutely loves to play games.

A review of Haba board games for toddlers. These games are perfect for kids as young as two years old and teach some super important skills like turn taking, colors, shapes, and following rules! And bonus: they're games you won't get tired of playing, either!

He picked up the basic rules pretty quickly of the games that we have, and he regularly asks to play now. He’s also learning some really important skills while we play – turn-taking, recognizing colors and shapes, patience, flexibility, following rules…it’s an awesome learning experience for him! The games are engaging enough that Mr. Garland and I have a good time too, and it’s so fascinating to watch him learn and experience these games.

One thing we’ve made sure to do as we’ve started introducing him to games is that we always make sure he follows the rules. We don’t want to send the message that board games are just a collection of small trinkets to play with – we want him to learn how to follow the rules and stay engaged in a game from the very beginning. It may be a little strict, but we take board games very seriously in our house, and we don’t want him to be one of those kids that plays for five minutes and then gets bored and wants to change the rules!

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A review of Haba board games for toddlers. These games are perfect for kids as young as two years old and teach some super important skills like turn taking, colors, shapes, and following rules! And bonus: they're games you won't get tired of playing, either!

As Jackson gets older, we’ll definitely introduce him to some of the more classic kids’ games – you can’t just not own Chutes & Ladders or Candyland, but for now these are the perfect difficulty level for a 2 or 3-year-old who isn’t ready for the more complicated games.

If you have a toddler I cannot recommend these games enough. Mr. Garland is pretty thrilled that Jackson is finally old enough to play them (he’s been researching toddler board games for a very, very long time) and I love that he’s having a lot of fun while working on some good skills. It’s also really nice to have an activity that we can do together that is engaging for all of us – sometimes it can get really old to play with dinosaurs and monster trucks over and over, so I love suggesting a board game for something different that makes everyone really happy.

A review of Haba board games for toddlers. These games are perfect for kids as young as two years old and teach some super important skills like turn taking, colors, shapes, and following rules! And bonus: they're games you won't get tired of playing, either!

So far, we just have three board games – My First Orchard (our favorite), Teddy’s Colors & Shapes (which has the easiest and most flexible rules), and Counting Fun (a little hard for him, but good for counting practice). There are a few others that we want to try – they’ve got a ton of different board games for toddlers, and we’ll definitely be building our collection since he loves it so much!

What board games do you like to play with your children?