100% Best Board Games for 3 Year Olds Your Family Will Love

Board games are a great way to bond with your kids. It's not just about having fun; board games also help with cognitive development and social skills. Board games for 3-year-olds should be simple enough that they are easy to grasp the rules yet challenging enough for them to enjoy it without getting bored too quickly. Here is our list of top 10 winners in review!

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#1. Best overall: Dragon's Breath

This game is adorable and well-made, as most Haba games are. Yet "Dragon's Breath" is a competitive game that both children and adults enjoy together. This game stands because most of the other board games for 3-year-olds are not that interesting for adults. This one is entertaining for adults too.

Even though the game is rated 5+, younger children will enjoy it more because it is so simple. There are far more exciting board games for 5-year-olds, which you can find in the blog post featured below.

RELATED: The Best Board Game For 5 Year Olds: A 2021 Review

Game time:

15 min

Number of players:

 2-4

Rules:

1. Create a stack of ice rings and fill it with sparkling gems.
2. Pick a color of your gem and take turns to take off the ice rings.
3. Collect the sparkling stones of your color. After each round, the players need to pick a new color of the gem. When the last ice ring is removed, the person who has the most gems wins.

Play "Dragon's Breath" with 3-year-olds: 

to make the game simpler, let the child keep the same sparkling stone during the game. However, after playing several times, your 3-year-old will be able to pick the gem each round so that the game will be more challenging and beneficial for them.

Game benefits:

3-year-olds learn to follow the rules, take turns. Also, they work on hand-eye coordination when trying to take off the next ice ring. Moreover, children improve their visual attention, analytical skills, and even strategic thinking when they try to predict which gem will fall next.

#2. Best runner up: Foto Fish

"Foto fish" is a new fantastic game with so many benefits! The game has simpler levels for a typical 3-year-old to enjoy and more challenging levels to engage the older ones. The game can be played with kids of multiple ages, so it is a good buy if you have more kids older than 3.

However, some 3-year-olds might find it more challenging and will be capable of playing it later, at a slightly older age.

So far, this game is difficult to buy online as it is not yet available on big marketplaces. However, we will update the links as soon as it is available for purchase.

Game time: 20 min

Number of players: 2-4

Rules: roll two dices and look for fish of the colors that appeared on the dices. There is a board with fish and a viewfinder for that. The first who find the fish gets the big piece of a fish that he grows. Other players who also correctly found fish pairs get smaller fish pieces. The one with the longest grown fish wins the game.

Play "Foto Fish" with 3-year-olds: 

use the green board and smaller viewfinder with your little one. Also, do not play for speed and give them time to find their fish at the beginning. Once they get used to the game, you can include the speed factor. "Foto fish" might be especially amusing for kids of the same age to play against each other. Also, you can advance this game in several ways to increase the challenge for older kids.

Game benefits:

"Foto Fish" effectively boosts visual attention. Moreover, when a child looks for their fish on a board, the field-of-view of the eyes gets wider. Thus, this game is excellent for training pre-reading skills.

#3. Best under 10$: Spot It!

Game time: 15 min

Number of players: 2-5

Rules: players try to find the same object on a pair of cards; the first one to find gets the card. At the end of the game, the one with the highest number of cards wins.

Play "Spot It!" with 3-year-olds: 

depending on the type of Spot It! game, you may have different approaches with your child. If using the adult version, name all the objects on the cards and explain them to your child. Then you can start playing slowly, excluding the speed factor first. Just place the two cards in front of your child and let them find the object. If you see that the child can find things on cards without problems, you can play for speed.

If you buy Spot It! for kids, the pictures there will be familiar to a child, so that the learning process will be faster. However, such a game might be too easy for 5-year-olds, and you will still need to buy an adult version. Thus, consider what would be better for your child. Many 3-year-olds have no problem playing with the adult version when they understand the objects on the cards. However, the kid's version will be more engaging for them.

Game benefits:

"Spot It!" promotes reaction speed, visual perception, visual attention and distribution, attention focus, and language skills.

#4. Best family game for 3-year-olds: Pengoloo

"Pengoloo" is simple enough so that little kids quickly get the rules and dynamic enough to entertain the family on the game night and lets the 3-year-old feel like a part of a tribe.

Game time: 15 min

Number of players: 2-4

Rules: this is a memory-type game. Each player rolls two dices, and two colors appear on those dices. A player then needs to find eggs hidden under penguins to match those two colors on the dies. If they found an egg, a player keeps takes it together with a penguin, under which it was hidden. To win the game, a player needs to collect 6 penguins.

Play "Pengoloo" with 3-year-olds: 

start playing the simple memory version of the game without the stealing part.

Game benefits:

"Pengoloo" introduces children to the concept of memory-like games and improves their short-term memory.

#5. Best playdate game: Wooden Tower Stacking Game

This balance game is fast, competitive, and entertaining for a playdate of two or more 3-year-olds. Even older kids will enjoy playing it, so this is a perfect game for a playdate with kids of several ages. Important notice: all kids on a playdate must be older than 3. They must not put anything in their mouth because the elements of the game are tiny and make a choking hazard.

Game time: 10 min

Number of players: 1-4

Rules: these are straightforward— removing the pull of a corresponded color block after rolling the dice. To win the game, you need to stay in it longer than your competitors.

Game benefits:

"Wooden Tower Stacking Game" fosters hand-eye coordination, develops an accurate eye and dexterity in kids (but also in adults, who love this game too).

#6. Best cooperative: The Little Orchard

There are several versions of this old-classic game

Game time: 10-15 min

Number of players: 1-4

Rules: players need to cooperate to prevent the crow from eating cherries and thus win the game. In this game, players roll the dice, and depending on what appeared on the dice, they pick up a cherry, or the crow moves one square towards the cherry tree.

Play "The Little Orchard" with 3-year-olds:

"The Little Orchard" is a simpler version of the classic Haba game "Orchard" and is specially designed for three-year-olds. Thus, the rules are so simple that you need to start playing, and your little one will get the rules during the game. There is also an even more simple game called "My First Orchard" designed for children 2 years and older. So if you are afraid that "The Little Orchard" would still be too complicated for your 3-year-old, you can start with "My First Orchard." 

Game benefits:

this game is directed towards teaching children teamwork and cooperation and keeping and following the rules.

#7 Best educational: Three Little Piggies

This is a 1-player brainteaser with wisely created tasks starting from the simplest. That is why it is so easy to get a child into this game. 

Game time: 5-10 min per task

Number of players: 1

Rules: puzzle pieces with houses must fit on the board and surround standing piggies and the wolf.

Play "Three Little Piggies" with 3-year-olds:

first, ask a child to fit all the pieces of the puzzles on the board without any tasks. Show them how to do it, turn the puzzle pieces, explain that there should not be any empty spaces on the board. You may need to do it several times before your child understands how to fit the puzzle pieces on a board. Only after they can fill the board independently, you may start with challenges from the book.

Game benefits:

this game is the first step towards developing spatial thinking in preschoolers. "Three Little Piggies" is a great starting game. Completing this game prepares children to solve more challenging brain teasers like "Ghosthunters," "Road Block," "Quadrillion," as well as "Little Red Riding Hood" and later "Temple Connection." The above games are a series of brain teasers by Smart Games called to build spatial thinking, spatial insight, problem-solving, concentration, logic, etc. These skills are essential pre-requisites of school readiness, and such brain teasers train kids from a young age.

#8 Best travel game: Bingo (magnetic)

Travel-size "Bingo" has a convenient format for young children to play independently on a trip. All the elements are magnetic, so they won't fell off. Just consider that this game is not suitable for children under the age of 3 and has many small parts, so no babies should be around when playing the game.

Game time: 15 min

Number of players: 2

Rules: the rules are just like in classic bingo when the person who collects the 5 markers in a row first shouts "Bingo!" and wins the game.

Play "Bingo" with 3-year-olds: 

this particular game with animals instead of numbers is geared to young children. In this "Bingo" version, when the spinner stops on an animal, a child needs to place their marker on the animal's picture. Fortunately, both boards contain pictures of all animals, so children always get to put a marker down. Thus, they stay engaged as everyone gets to put a marker down every turn without waiting for a matching combination, just matching the animal.

Game benefits:

this game is more of a time-killer, as it provides not so many learning benefits, except matching skills. But when you need to keep your child busy, this game works well.

#9 The funniest board game: Bugs in the Kitchen

This exciting game is rated as 6+, but it causes a huge excitement in younger kids. The rules are super simple, so 3-year-olds will get them quickly. Yes, your little one will not be able to think strategically yet. But the intense fun is guaranteed. "Bugs in the Kitchen" is an excellent pick for a fun family night.

Game time: 15 min

Number of players: 2-4

Rules: the aim is to get the bug into your food corner by turning the walls. Each wall represents one of the three utensils drawn on a dice: knife, fork, or spoon. The role of the die will determine which utensil you can turn in each round. By turning the walls/utensils, you direct your bug either into your corner or prevent it from going into the competitor's corner. If the bug goes into your corner, you get the token; after several rounds of the game, the person with the most tokens wins.

Play "Bugs in the Kitchen" with 3-year-olds:

the game rules are simple so that a typical 3-year-old would get them. The only difficulty for a little child might be the fast pace of the game. In this case, you will need to be patient and adjust to your child's pace. A child might need to play a couple of times to catch on.

Game benefits:

"Bugs in the Kitchen" is called to improve reaction speed, planning, and even strategic thinking. But children get so excited with this game that they often turn the walls just for fun without any deep thought. Nevertheless, this game is so emotionally charged that the fun factor is its strongest benefit.

#10. Best easy board game: The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel

A pleasant sensory game with beautiful elements will certainly entertain every 3-year-old. The box and all the parts are sturdy and adorable. It makes an excellent gift for a little one without any board game experience. This game, however, doesn't require a lot of thinking and will not be too educational for children older than 3.

Game time: 15 min

Number of players: 2-4

Rules: you need to fill the tree stump with acorns of each color. Spinning the wheel determines the player's next move, which is collecting an acorn of a particular color, stealing an acorn from your competitors, or even losing all your acorns! A person who fists gathers all the acorns wins the game.

Play "The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel" with 3-year-olds:

the easy rules allow even young children to learn them upon play.

Game benefits: 

the game hones fine motor skills, color recognition, and counting. This game is rated as 3+, and it fits with age. 3-year-olds will improve their skills while playing it. However, older kids will not benefit from the game much as it would be too simple and not challenging for them. That is why in our opinion, "The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel " is a short-lived game for children of a narrow age range between 2.5 and 4 years old.

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