Best Board Games for 3 Year Olds

We live in a fast-paced world of video games and iPads. Most kids today will spend their precious childhood years in front of a screen. However, many parents and guardians are moving away from this mindset. They are now encouraging their children to enjoy other forms of entertainment, such as outdoor play and board games.

Playing children’s board games is an excellent way to spend quality time with your kid. They also carve the way for young children to play with one another and make new friends.

So, if you’re looking for board games to gift your child, look no farther! Below is a list of top board games for 3 year olds to enjoy by themselves or with others:

Best Board Games for 3 Year Olds

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Candy Land is a classic board game by Hasbro designed to improve children’s color theory skills. It features a series of eye catching artworks and colorful characters. This makes the game particularly appealing to little kids and helps foster their imagination.

Personas like the Candy King and Lollipop Fairy give children a chance to live as fantasy characters through the game. It also includes a delicious map complete with mouthwatering locations. The Peppermint Stick Forest and Gumdrop Mountain are some fun examples!

Despite having multiple players, Candy Land wasn’t designed to foster competition. Rather, it encourages children to cheer each other on and develop their coordination skills.

Pros:

• Encourages imagination and individual play
• Attractive artwork
• Simple instructions

Cons:

• Colorful board may overstimulate sensitive kids

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Every child should experience playing Chutes and Ladders (also known as Snakes and Ladders) at least once. The whole family can enjoy this great game together, including young kids! It is highly replayable and randomized, guaranteeing a different outcome each time.

Chutes and Ladders offers younger kids a chance to develop their turn-taking and social skills. It requires patience and camaraderie, especially when your turn’s going wrong!

Engaging in such games is a surefire way for both younger and older kids to learn how to be a good sport. A 2021 study titled ‘The Behavioral Effects of Cooperative and Competitive Board Games in Preschoolers” reinforces this idea. It discusses how regularly engaging in such games can help kids develop better teamwork and interpersonal skills. This is because children must work together to win certain games. As a result, they learn the importance of supporting one’s peers. They carry these values forward in life and may develop into kind and mature adults.

Pros:

• Simple interface
• Quick game play

Cons:

• Doesn’t encourage strategy
• Highly luck based

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Every board game lover has heard of Sequence. But did you know there’s a special version just for kids?

Sequence for Kids maintains a smaller, easily portable game board. It also contains innovative game cards designed to appeal to kids. Instead of using regular playing cards, Sequence for Kids employs animal cards. Similar to the original version, lining up 4 cards in a row helps you win the game.

This is an excellent game to help develop various cognitive functions. It teaches kids to wait their turn and develop a sensible strategy to win. It can also help shy kids overcome their struggle with social anxiety, as per the study cited above.

Pros:

• No reading required
• Special cards for kids

Cons:

• Flimsy board

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If you’re looking for straightforward team game for your kid, Colorama is the way to go. This game encourages players to match shapes to the colors on the board.

There isn’t much to the gameplay, but it’s an excellent way to teach your child about colors and shapes. It can help them prepare for pre-school without having to spend hours stressing over worksheets.

Unlike most board games, playing Colorama isn’t a competition. Everyone wins as long as all the pieces are matched to the board. This gaming tactics helps kids learn about teamwork, too!

Pros:

• Simple interface
• Young kids can play it without adult guidance

Cons:

• Repetitive game play

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Feed the Woozle is an excellent game for a single child to enjoy by themselves. The goal is simple: feed the Woozle so he isn’t hungry!

Your kid can also team up with an adult they trust or other kids to finish the game faster. The game offers 3 levels of gameplay, allowing kids to try new levels after mastering the simpler ones.

Pros:

• Offers both solo and collaborative game play
• Eyecatching artwork

Cons:

• Repetitive

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If the name hasn’t given it away already, this is an adorable game younger kids will thoroughly enjoy. It requires minimal strategy and focuses instead on completing tasks in time.

Here’s how to win the game: use the spinner to pick and match the right bugs. If you encounter 3 stink bugs before completing the task at hand, you lose the game.

Snug as a Bug in a Rug teaches kids to make sensible, intuitive decisions. Unlike most other games, like Sequence, this one enhances a child’s emotional intelligence and social skills development.

Pros:

• Fun, interactive game play
• Encourages decisive decision-making skills
• Non-stressful

Cons:

• Lacks strategy

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Playing Hungry Bins is an excellent way to teach your kid about environmental responsibility. This game encourages recycling and helps develop your child’s cognition and memory. It’s an excellent game for kids who are new to board games, thanks to its simple interface.

Each bin is hungry and demands food! Winning the game includes feeding the bins a specific type of food card. For example, one bin may demand plastic products, while another prefers organic items. Each food product exists on a distinct card. Your child must polish their memory skills to successfully remember which card goes where.

Pros:

• Environmentally-friendly board made from recycled material
• Teaches social responsibility

Cons:

• Repetitive

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This highly interactive game features a musical bed that plays the popular “five little monkeys” nursery rhyme each time a card is drawn. Players must collect banana cards while avoiding monkey cards. Whoever has the most banana cards by end game wins!

Five Little Monkeys offers simple, rewarding game play. Being a card game, it offers no choking hazard. So, you can let your kids enjoy playing without constant adult supervision. Plus, it features special jumbo cards with rounded edges, adding an extra layer of safety.

You can find the game on Amazon or on its official website.

Pros:

• Simple instructions
• Easy-to-old jumbo cards

Cons:

• Noisy

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Does your child love unicorns? If so, consider gifting them this fantastic unicorn-themed memory game! This is an excellent alternative to the memory game listed above, especially if your child loves pastel colors. This is because Rainbow Unicorns revolves around matching tail cards to head cards. The correct matching sequence depends on the unicorn’s color.

Each time a player makes a successful match, they get to move their counter across the board. In that way, this game resembles other popular options, like Candy Land. However, getting ahead on the board depends on skill rather than rolling dice.

Up to 4 children can play this matching game together, making it an excellent opportunity to bond over. Plus, despite being unicorn-themed, this game is open to both genders. It can also help kids sharpen their cognitive skills and improve overall attention span.

Furthermore, this game improves hand-eye coordination when children pick and place matching cards together.

Pros:

• Improves attention span
• Teaches children about matching colors

Cons:

• Boys may not be willing to play it

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Egg Surprise is a fun-filled way to teach your child about numbers. It can also help refine their counting and addition skills.

Here’s how you play the game: each player gets a turn at spinning the wheel. Then, they must match the number on said wheel to a rabbit with the same number of spots. Upon flipping the rabbit card, they’ll find a corresponding number of eggs. Whichever player has the most eggs by the end of the game, wins!

Pros:

• Improves math skills
• Great Easter gift

Cons:

• Younger kids may need help with counting

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Shopping List is exactly what it sounds like. Each player gets a unique list of products to ‘buy.’ They must then take turns to pick the appropriate products from the product mini cards. Each players gets a shopping trolley or basket-shaped card to store the products on.

This innovative game includes 4 shopping lists, including one printed on a tablet template. It encourages kids to read, but younger kids can use the visual cues instead. Either way, the child must match the right products to the list. So, this game encourages discipline, reading skills, and hand-eye coordination. It also encourages children to be attentive and develop and eye for detail.

Pros:

• Develops memory and matching skills
• Improves observation abilities

Cons:

• Repetitive

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Based on the beloved children’s book by the same name, this game provides hours of endless fun. It is highly replayable and encourages kids to develop an appreciation for friendly competition.

To win, players must take turns to pick cards and move their caterpillar meeple across the board. Every time the caterpillar lands on a fruit, it gains a butterfly wing jigsaw piece. Any player who collects all five butterfly pieces wins the game!

This game encourages decision-making by allowing kids to choose which way their caterpillar should move. The rounded, multi-path board encourages multi-directional movement. However, players must make strategic decisions to successfully land on a fruit piece and feed their caterpillar. Choosing a less fruit-filled path may cause the player to fall behind!

Pros:

• Teaches counting skills
• Encourages player accountability

Cons:

• Some kids may struggle to understand the rules

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If you’re looking for a way to challenge your child and improve their teamwork skills, look no farther. Pete the Cat is here to help!

This game revolves around reclaiming cupcakes from the Grumpy Toad and giving them to Pete, instead. Players must collaborate to effectively find and replace the cakes. For example, they may need to sing together or complete other mini-challenges. This teaches children to work together and respect one another’s talents. Plus, its non-repetitive gameplay style makes this board game highly interesting. You never know what mini challenges you’re gonna get!

It also includes a fantastic, intricately-illustrated board. There’s also a set of 3-D cupcakes that add to the game’s quality. Most board games feature mini item cards, so seeing 3-D objects is a pleasant change!

Pros:

• No reading required
• Easy for younger kids to understand
• Convenient set-up
• Improves dexterity

Cons:

• Small parts present choking hazard to younger kids

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Busytown has been around a long time and is still popular – and for good reason! The game’s colorful design instantly draws kids in. The phenomenal game play makes them stay!

Busytown originated as a video game in 1993. The board game version came out over a decade later, but has become a cult-classic ever since.

Here’s how it’s played: players must spin the spinner and zoom across the board accordingly. Finding precious items along the way helps with winning the game. Once all the players reachy the end of the board, they win!

But beware! The evil Pig is also out to take your precious items and eat all the ‘food.’ Players must outrace him to win – or else!

The board itself is 6 feet long, making for an extremely interesting game. Plus, all players must work together to reach the board’s end. The game doesn’t end till everyone makes it all the way across.

This classic game tactic encourages teamwork, promotes attention to detail, and reinforces matching skills. It also improves hand-eye coordination. In fact, recent research shows that board games improve children’s cognitive skills significantly.

Pros:

• An excellent family board game
• Improves mental cognition and fine motor skills
• Cooperative board game

Cons:

• Long game play duration

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This adorable game has one goal: to help the ladybugs find their way home!

Players must pick a card from the deck and move their ladybug accordingly. Each card represents a number and behaves as a substitute for dice.

Some cards represent aphids. These benefit the player. Others may contain a praying mantis and set the player behind. This reward and risk scheme encourages children to become comfortable with both winning and losing.

As a result, kids who enjoy such board games are better at accepting real-world losses. This is because such games teach kids to be patient and accepting of unfavorable outcomes.

Furthermore, this game teaches kids to count and add. It’s a wonderful way to introduce your child to basic math operations. The game’s uncomplicated design makes it ideal for kids aged 3. In fact, it’s well-suited to 4 year olds and older, too. Older siblings can enjoy this game with their younger siblings. Hence, The Ladybug Game encourages bonding and can strengthen family ties, too!

Pros:

• Colorful, eye-catching board
• Dice-free game play (no small parts)

Cons:

• No fixed game duration
• Open-ended outcomes

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This classic game goes back to the 60s! It’s come a long way since then, with significant improvement in board quality. However, it still maintains the game’s original ethos and goal.

Hi Ho Cherry-O aims to teach kids how to count. It also entertains fundamental math functions, like addition and subtraction.

To win, players must collect cherries from their tree. Each tree (embedded into the board) can hold a handful of 3-D plastic cherries. The 3-D cherries offer an additional layer of in-game interactivity.

Players must spin the spinner to help decide their next move. Little ones will love spinning the arrow around. It can also help improve their hand-eye coordination.

This game is the perfect first orchard for your kids to pick fruit from. However, spinning a dog, bird, or spilled bucket spells danger. Any player landing a cherry-less spin risks losing all the cherries they’ve picked so far.

Despite the challenges and potential for player setback offered by this game, it’s remained play time favorite for decades. It could be your child’s next favorite game, too!

Pros:

• A fun way to learn math
• Improves counting skills

Cons:

• Small game pieces (cherries)

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Playing this game is an excellent way to pass the time. Disney’s Classic Character Matching Game features favorites like Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Winnie the Pooh, and Ariel! It’s the perfect gift for kids who love Disney.

This game resembles Memory. It includes unique Disney character cards instead. Players must place all cards face down before taking turns to select and match cards. In this way, it helps kids improve their memory and attention span.

Plus, it’s a lot of fun to share this game with other kids! Your child can enjoy playing Disney’s Matching Game with their classmates. It’s hands-down one of the best games to enjoy at preschool. You can also enjoy a quick game with your child during your free time.

Pros:

• Ideal for family game night
• Encourages turn taking

Cons:

• Small cards

Final Thoughts

There’s nothing quite like bonding with your child over a fun board game. Use this list to pick out a set of games that your child will enjoy best! Remember to also select games based on the skills you’d like to teach the, such as teamwork or dexterity.