Kids these days, always watching TV or on their phones (when did we turn into our parents!?). Board games offer the perfect distraction and are hands down the best way to get your kids learning while having fun.
Shapes, colors, words, numbers, you name it; board games have got it. Foster a love for board games from a young age and train your kid one day to become a master in their own right. Your little one will soon follow in your footsteps if you get them excited with these fantastic board games for 3-year-olds.
🏆 Our Top Picks for Best Board Games for 3-Year-Olds
In a hurry? Take a quick peek before you go at the best board games for 3-Year-Olds to play.
YOU MAY ALSO ENJOY (BEST GAMES BY AGE GROUP): Toddler & Preschool | Kindergarten | 2-Year-Old | 3-Year-Old | 4-Year-Old | 5-Year-Old | 5-6-Year-Old | 7-Year-Old | 8-Year-Old | 9-Year-Old | 10-Year-Old | 11-12-Year-Old | Teens & Teenagers
Games for 3-Year-Olds
First Orchard
Players: 1–4
Playing Time: 10 mins
Can you pick all the fruit before the pesky raven interferes? Move along the simple board to collect brightly colored play pieces, perfectly designed for little hands.
What we liked
This game fosters the concepts of winning and losing and teaches kids how to take turns. The play pieces are even good for free play and the well-designed simplistic setup will keep them interested for many games over.
The game also promotes fine motor skills and color recognition and its cooperative nature means it could even be played by kids as young as 2.
The game can be made more complex as they grow older. Not many games can age with your child so this is a great long-term board game.
What could be better
For a 3-year-old, there’s not much to be critical about here. For the parents or adults that play too, this game can be quite dull as there are few real decisions of any kind to be made.
The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game
Players: 2-4
Playing Time: 15 mins
The concept is simple, fill your log with nuts before the other players do in order to win the game. But add in a highly interactive game set-up and you can keep the kids entertained for hours!
Players have a log with colored holes and each hole needs to be filled with a fun plastic acorn. The spinner will tell you if you win or lose an acorn or two or maybe get to be a sneaky squirrel and steal from your opponent.
What we liked
Easy to learn and easy to teach, this is a big hit with the 3+ age group. The pieces are well made, especially the squirrel figurine (that you use to add the acorns to your log) who’s cute as a button and will quickly become your child’s new favorite playmate.
What could be better
The concept of stealing acorns from opponents could be frustrating for little ones, as well as the disappointment of spinning a windstorm.
Richard Scarry’s Busytown
Players: 2-4
Playing Time: 20 mins
Now, this is a trip down memory lane! As kids, we all enjoyed Busytown books and wished we could drive in an apple car, now you can bring your kids into the same fantastic fantasy world.
The 6-foot-long board is as you would expect, busy, and full of cute characters and objects hidden amongst them.
Make your way from the bottom of the board through the town all the way up to the ferry that takes passengers to Picnic Island. Help Goldbug the cricket to find the hidden objects and move faster as you collect more items. Hurry, because Pig will eat all the food if he gets to the island before you!
What we liked
Busytown is great for getting kids to look thoughtfully at pictures and even learn new words/things. Plus, the I-Spy element makes it fun for adults to play too.
What could be better
We wish there was an audio timer as we get so caught up looking at the pictures, we completely miss when the sand timer runs out.
Hi Ho! Cherry-O
Players: 2-4
Playing Time: 15 mins
Kids will love the quirky design and fun playing pieces of the Hi Ho! Cherry-O board game. Instill the importance of taking turns by letting each player have a go at spinning the spinner. This will tell you if you gain or lose cherries.
Fill up your bucket before the other players to be the cherry-picking champion. You can also play cooperatively and try to pick the cherries before the bird takes them all. The game features a 9-piece puzzle that represents the pesky bird and adds a whole new level of intrigue to the game.
What we liked
This is a great educational game for 3-year-olds to teach counting, subtracting, and taking turns.
What could be better
Hi Ho Cherry-O is entirely luck-based and very tedious for adults to play, but it’s a classic (1960) for a reason!
Zingo!
Players: 2-8
Playing Time: 5 mins
Bingo is no longer just for old folks in the community hall, now the pre-schoolers can get in on the action too! Each player gets a playing card with 9 images and words on them. The card dispenser then draws one or two image cards which players must then place on the corresponding blocks on their playing card.
Tension builds as the number of players increases and more than one calls for an image card. Fastest fingers first, though!
What we liked
Kids will learn to multitask as they must look, listen, and read, all while trying to be faster than their opponents.
The reverse side (red) has more difficult words on them and is perfect if older kids want to join in. The game difficulty can also be decreased by letting the first player that scores 3 in a row win.
What could be better
Zingo doesn’t really work with two players because sometimes neither player has many items left, which leaves you revealing tiles over and over and no one has them.
Count Your Chickens
Players: 2-4
Playing Time: 15 mins
Forty baby chickens have escaped the coop and mama chicken needs to get them all back. But the sneaky fox is also around, looking to let them out again.
Help mama chicken move across the board and get the chicks back where they belong by spinning the spinner to see where you land.
The game seems super simple but the suspense that builds up along the way is palpable and losing a few chicks never gets any easier.
Could we get all meta and call this preparation for life? Let’s not. But, you will teach the kids a few valuable lessons about counting their chickens before they hatch!
What we liked
This cute, cooperative game is easy to teach and play, giving kids a great opportunity to hone their counting skills while having fun!
What could be better
It’s pretty impossible to lose this game, so if your kids like a challenge, this might be disappointing.
Sequence for Kids
Players: 2-4
Playing Time: 20 mins
Sequence, the popular board/card game for adults is now available for kids too! This basic game involves a bit of strategy, patience, and planning.
Players get dealt 3 cards and take turns placing playing chips on the board. Each chip goes on a picture square corresponding to their card.
They then draw more cards from the deck and continue placing their chips. The first player to successfully place 4 chips in a row wins the game.
What we liked
There is no reading involved and the game is super easy to snap. Kids will love the replayability and it will tap into their competitive side.
What could be better
Holding cards and waiting for four in a row can be a bit tricky for this age group. You can, however, remove the unicorn and dragon to make it slightly easier.
Feed the Woozle
Players: 2-5
Playing Time: 15 mins
If you are looking for a game that will get your kids up and active, look no further. Feed the Woozle is a kooky game that lets kids be silly from start to finish.
The Woozle is a fuzzy character that is hungry for some sugar-coated sardines and moldy macaroni, yuck! Roll the dice to see how many snacks you need to feed him. The catch is, he only eats from a spoon! Load up your snacks on the spoon and walk over to the Woozle to feed him 12 snacks before they all run out.
What we liked
The game is cooperative and can increase with difficulty as kids get the hang of it. The spinner can add a new dimension to the game by making the feeder do a hula dance, bunny hop, or go crazy to make their walk to the Woozle even more difficult.
What could be better
Feed the Woozle is more of a physical/dexterity activity, rather than a board game. While fun for kids, it can get a bit tedious for adults after a few plays.
Wiggle your way to victory by keeping the Woozle happy and full!
Animal Upon Animal
Players: 2-4
Playing Time: 15 mins
Few games resonate as well with kids and adults alike as Animal Upon Animal. Each player starts with an assortment of wooden animals and takes a turn stacking them on top of each other.
Roll the dice to see if you need to stack one or two animals but players can also choose which animal they need to stack or you get to add them to the base to make it easier for the next player. The dice will decide!
But watch out, if your animals fall you need to take them all back. The first player to stack all their animals wins.
What we liked
Animal Upon Animal has high-quality wooden animals that are great components and always make for unique towers. This game has a great dexterity feature that can be replayed for years to come and is loved by young and old.
What could be better
Watch out! Kids like to see the animals tumble so stacking might take longer than you hoped!
Snug as a Bug in a Rug
Players: 2-4
Playing Time: 15 minutes
Get the cute bugs under the rug before the gross stink bugs make a mess! Players take turns spinning and need to find a bug matching the description on the spinner.
The matching bug gets to hide snugly under the rug. If there is no match, a stink bug gets placed on top of the rug and you are one step closer to losing the game. Three stink bugs on the rug are all it takes to stink up the room and the game has to restart.
What we liked
This game has quality components and is cooperative as players work together to find the bugs in question. They get to identify numbers, shapes, and sizes and learn as they play. The game can increase in difficulty with three levels of gameplay.
What could be better
With a board, dice, a spinner, and tokens, this game has a bit of complexity that might be tricky to communicate to kids and might require a lot of coaching.
Wrap-Up
We hope you enjoyed our list of the best board games for 3-year-olds! These entertaining games are a fun way to introduce your child to board gaming, cooperation, and a whole host of other early developmental skills. Let us know in the comments which ones you’ve tried! We’d love to hear from you.
Find more educational games in our video below:
As a late bloomer in the world of board games, I have made quick work of catching up. I am the master bluffer when it comes to social deduction games and reading my opponents is my third language. As a writer, I have a soft spot for games where words and images take the spotlight as opposed to strategy games where logical thinking sometimes evades me. Fusing these two sides of my spirit has been a match made in blogging heaven!