HABA's Number Dwarves game teaches counting, shapes, and numbers without letting on to kids that they're learning. Players traverse a game board with small wooden gnomes with cute felt beards, hoping to land on "treasure" spaces that will allow them to take a glass bead. The game allows for many different types and levels of play, with challenges including counting, physical challenges (Z learned how to do jumping jacks), and shape identification by touch. The most fascinating thing about this game is the creative freedom children are given in counting, which is typically presented as a fairly rote task. More on that in a minute - it's what gives this game its critical thinking dimension and what makes it a great game.

As with most HABA games, the quality of the board, the cards and the pieces is outstanding.


Dwarves making their way around the game board. The game ends when all the gold treasures are distributed rather than when a finish line is reached.


On each turn, you choose a card. If you get a card with an object on it, you identify what on that card you want to count and get to move that number of spaces. Here's where the critical thinking comes in. If you have three spaces to move to get to a treasure spot, you could count the candles in this card; if you had two spots to move, you could count the hearts. There are any number of different things on each card that can be counted, demanding creativity, multiple "counts" for each turn, and observation about what there is that can be counted, and what might yield higher or lower results. This aspect of the game is just starting to make sense to our four-year-old, and it will keep older kids engaged with this game, too. A card featuring a pair of pants, for example, can have the number of legs, pockets, or pairs counted; a jack-o'-lantern, below, can inspire a count of eyes, mouths, holes, reddish stripes, stems, colors... get the idea?

Alternate card types (a fairy or an "imp") challenge you to draw a shape by touch from a bag or perform a physical action. The number of sides on the shapes corresponds with the number of spaces that you are allowed to move forward, again allowing for random drawing for beginner counters or calculated planning for advanced counters. Actions are performed in ways that bear a relationship to numbers as well.



The game ends when all of the treasure is spoken for. The winner is identified by the person who has the most treasures, but we typically just celebrate our accomplishments on the journey and our time spent playing the game as a family, with who won still a secondary consideration.

This is, hands-down, the best number game that we've played - it incorporates creativity, physical activity, touch, critical thinking and movement very well. At $33, we consider this game a great investment in learning, and one that is built to last.