As a parent, I understand the importance of spending quality time with my children, especially when it comes to board games. With my youngest child now four years old, it’s a great pastime for me and my older children to play board games with her, as I did when each of my other three children were younger.
Each of my children has wildly different personalities and favorites, but there are some consistently good games that all of them enjoyed.
In this article, I’m excited to share some of my favorite board games for 3-5 year olds, as well as the benefits of playing board games for your toddler’s or preschooler’s development.
Criteria for Selecting the Best Board Games for 3 to 5 Year Olds
There are several factors to consider when choosing board games for young children:
- Age-appropriateness: Select games that are specifically designed for your child’s age range because the rules will be easy enough for a young chilf to understand and the themes will be in line with what young children are interested in.
- Complexity: Begin with simple and easy-to-understand games and progress to more complex games as your child’s skills develop.
- Interests: When choosing games, consider your child’s interests, as they will be more motivated to play games that are related to things they like.
- Playability: Select games that are long-lasting, have clear instructions, and are simple to set up and play.
Best Board Games For 3 To 5 Year Olds – Quick Comparison
| Rank | Name | # Players | Time | Complexity | Good For |
| #1 | Hoot Owl Hoot | 2-4 | 15 mins | Very Easy | Best Cooperative |
| #2 | Animal Upon Animal | 2-4 | 15 mins | Very Easy | Best Dexterity |
| #3 | Dragomino | 2-4 | 15 mins | Very Easy | Best Strategy |
1. Most Overall: Hoot Owl Hoot
- Players: 2-4
- Playing time: 15 mins
Owl Hoot Hoot is a delightful cooperative game, ideal for young children who enjoy collaborating with others. In this game, players must collaborate to return all of the owls to their nest before the sun rises. It’s a simple yet engaging game that aids in teaching kids teamwork.
It’s worth noting that Orchard has similar gameplay but a different theme.
How to play:
In Hoot Owl Hoot, players take turns drawing and playing colored cards in order to move owls to spaces of the color you have on your card. The goal is to get all of the owls into the nest before the sun rises. It’s a race against the clock, as you need to plan your moves and ensure that all of the owls arrive at the nest before morning. The players lose if the sun rises before all the baby owls arrive at the nest. This game is not only entertaining, but it also teaches children about colors and counting.
Type of child that might like it:
Hoot Owl Hoot is a game that is ideal for children who enjoy cooperating with others. It also has a fantastic and very cute design, so it will appeal to those who like cute baby animals.
Benefits for your child:
- Teaches teamwork and cooperation
- Develops color recognition and counting skills
2. Best Dexterity: Animal Upon Animal
- Players: 2-4
- Playing Time: 15 mins
Animal Upon Animal is an exciting dexterity game in which players must stack animals on top of one another without them falling off. This game is not only entertaining, but it also aids in the development of important skills such as hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills.
How to play:
To play, each player takes turns rolling a die that determines how many animals they need to add to the stack of animals. As the animal tower gets taller, the game gets harder, and players have to stay steady and pay attention to keep the animals from falling over. The first player to rid themselves of all of their animals wins the game.
Type of child that might like it:
Animal Upon Animal is ideal for children who enjoy building things and are fascinated by various animals. It’s also great for kids who are working on their fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination because it requires precise movements to keep the animals from falling.
Benefits for your child:
- Develops hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills
- Encourages concentration and focus
- Teaches turn-taking and patience
3. Best Building: Dragomino
- Players: 2-4
- Playing time: 15 mins
Dragomino is a strategy game that sends players on an adventure to a mysterious island in search of dragon eggs. For those who have played Kingdomino, it has very similar gameplay (where you draft tiles to build an island) except that it has been redesigned to be suitable for young kids.
How to play:
To play, each player takes turns laying out tiles that look like dominoes together, and if you place tiles that match in color next to each other, then you get dragon eggs. The tiles depict various terrains such as forests, rivers, and mountains. Players earn points by collecting dragon eggs, and at the end of the game, the player with the most eggs wins.
Type of child that might like it:
Dragonino is a board game that would be fun for kids who like dragons and other creatures from stories. This game helps kids learn to think critically and plan ahead. It’s perfect for kids who like challenging games that require them to solve problems. Children who enjoy building and construction games may enjoy Dragomino, which involves constructing a kingdom out of tiles.
Benefits for your child:
- Develops pattern and matching skills
- Encourages strategic thinking
4. Best Push Your Luck: Hisss
- Players: 2-5
- Playing Time: 15 mins
Hisss is a slithery game that will have your children hissing with delight. Players collect snake cards to make the longest, most colorful snakes possible. This game helps children develop pattern recognition and color-matching abilities.
How to play:
To begin, cards are drawn from a joint pile and used to make snakes in the middle of the table. The snakes length can be increased by matching the colors of the snake. When a snake is completed (so it has both a head and a tail), the player who completed the snake gets to claim that snake and put it in front of them. The winner is the player who has the most snake cards at the end of the game!
Type of child that might like it:
This game is perfect for kids who are interested in snakes and lizards and like to match colors and patterns.
Benefits for your child:
- Develops pattern recognition and color matching skills
- Teaches simple strategy and planning
5. Best Racing: Snail Sprint
- Players: 2-4
- Playing Time: 15 mins
Snail Sprint is an exciting racing game for young children. Players secretly know which snails they want to win and take turns rolling a die and moving different snails along the path, attempting to get their snails to be the first to reach the finish line. The game is really cool because the snails are magnetic, so the kids can have the snail climb the tin as part of the path they race on.
How to play:
To begin the game, players must first select a card that gives them the three snails that they’ll get points for if those snails win. The players then take turns rolling two colored dice that have a colored symbol on them. The players can then choose to move a snail in the color of one of the dice to the next spot with a symbol from the other dice on it. The aim is to be the player who gets the most points, which they get from the snails on their cards.
Type of child that might like it:
Snail Sprint is an excellent choice for children who enjoy racing and competition. It’s also a good choice for kids learning about numbers and counting because the game encourages players to keep track of how many spaces they move with each roll of the dice.
Benefits for your child:
- Develops counting and number recognition skills
- Encourages turn-taking and patience
6. Best Quick Thinking: Spot It! Junior Animals
- Players: 2-4
- Playing Time: 20 mins
Spot It! Is a bit like Snap but slower paced, where children need to find the matching animals on a card before claiming them. This game is a great way for young kids to learn how to find things and pay attention. My daughter loves seek and find books, and this game is also one of her favorites.
How to play:
Players take turns drawing cards from their piles and placing them down. The players then have to search the two cards that are in play, and the first person to yell out the animal that they’ve spotted on both cards gets to keep the cards.
I find Snap always ends up in arguments about who snapped first and children getting hurt, but this game, although similar, doesn’t.
Type of child that might like it:
Children who enjoy searching for things will enjoy the thrill of trying to be the first to spot the animal. This game is ideal for children who like competition and fast-paced games.
Benefits for your child:
- Develops observation and reflex skills
- Encourages quick thinking
7. Best Searching: Race to the Treasure!
- Players: 1-4
- Playing Time: 20 minutes
Race to the Treasure! is a cooperative board game where children work together to get to the treasure before the ogre does. The game’s concept is simple, but it promotes teamwork, cooperation, and problem-solving skills among the players. The theme of collecting treasure is fun and exciting, making it an enjoyable experience for children.
How to play:
Race to the Treasure is a game in which each player takes turns drawing tiles with a path on them and putting them on a board. Each turn, the players need to work together to make the path, collect the three keys, and then collect the treasure. But watch out! Some tiles have the ogre on them, and every time they pick up a tile with an ogre on it, he gets closer to getting the treasure first. The whole team either wins or loses together.
Type of child that might like it:
This game is ideal for children who enjoy working with others and are learning about problem-solving. One of my children when he was young did find it a bit stressful that the ogre might get the treasure first, but the others found it exciting to race against the ogre.
Benefits for your child:
- Teaches teamwork and cooperation
- Encourages problem-solving
8. Best Matching: Snug as a Bug in a Rug
- Players: 2–4
- Playing time: 15 minutes
Snug as a Bug in a Rug is a cooperative board game for children of all ages. The goal of the game is to work together to put the bugs hiding under the rug before the stink bugs get on the rug. The game is simple, but the colorful bugs make it an enjoyable experience for young children.
How to play:
Snug as a Bug in a Rug is a game in which each player takes turns spinning a spinner or rolling a die and finding bugs of the matching pattern or color to hide. There are a few different levels of difficulty for what you can match (so for young kids, it’s just the color, but as they get more experienced, you can add in patterns or eye size). It’s a cooperative game, so there are no winners or losers, which works well for a lot of young kids who can’t cope with losing.
Type of child that might like it:
This game is ideal for children who enjoy working with others and are learning about matching and problem-solving. My child is also a big fan of creepy crawly things (except spiders because they don’t look cute), so this is perfect.
Benefits for your child:
- Teaches teamwork and cooperation
- Teaches pattern matching
9. Best Searching: Disney Eye Found It!
- Players: 1–6
- Playing time: 15 minutes
Disney Eye Found It is a frantic cooperative game that sends players on an exciting adventure to find hidden objects hidden throughout the Disney characters’ realms before the clock strikes midnight. This game is an excellent way for young children to develop observation skills with the familiarity of many of their favorite characters.
How to play:
Players take turns spinning the wheel to see if they can move, search, or tick the clock upwards. If they search, they need to draw a card and everyone needs to search the massive board for the object. If they find an object everyone gets to move forward. The game is won if the players arrive at the castle before the clock strikes midnight.
Type of child that might like it:
Children who enjoy exploring and discovering new things will enjoy the thrill of the search. This game is also ideal for Disney fans, as it has so many of their favorite characters!
Benefits for your child:
- Teaches teamwork and cooperation
- Develops problem-solving and observation skills
- Encourages social interaction
10. Best Action: The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game
- Players: 2–4
- Playing time: 15 minutes
The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game is a fun board game about a group of squirrels on a mission to collect acorns and fill their trees. This fun game is meant to help young kids improve their fine motor skills, ability to tell colors apart, and hand-eye coordination. But be aware that it is 100% luck-based, and some children don’t really like that (neither do I, but I’ve found most young kids don’t really care).
How to play:
Players take turns spinning a colorful spinner, and that tells them what acorns they can collect. They then have to collect the acorns using squirrel-shaped tweezers. Players must match the color of their acorns to the color of their tree’s branches, and the game is won by the first player to fill their tree with all five colored acorns.
Type of child that might like it:
The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game is ideal for children who enjoy collecting things and engaging in hands-on activities. This game is also great for kids who are just starting to learn about colors and counting. The game’s adorable squirrel theme and vibrant colors are sure to capture the attention of young children and keep them engaged in the game.
Benefits for your child:
- Develops fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination
- Encourages turn-taking and patience
- Teaches color recognition and counting skills
Honorable Mentions: More Great Board Games for 3-5 Year Olds
In addition to the games mentioned above, there are numerous other excellent board games suitable for young children. Here are five deserving mentions:
- Yeti In My Spaghetti is a silly game in which you must remove spaghetti strands from a bowl without letting the yeti fall into it. The player who causes the yeti to fall loses the game. Players take turns removing spaghetti strands one at a time. This game promotes turn-taking and patience while also developing fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.
- Zingo is a bingo-style game that aids in the development of early reading and language skills in children. Players fill their Zingo cards with picture tiles, and the first player to do so wins the game. This game is excellent for developing vocabulary and word recognition, as well as turn-taking and social skills.
- My First Castle Panic is a cooperative game in which players must work together to defend a castle from monsters. The monsters move along a path on the way to destroying the castle, and the players take turns playing cards that represent spots on the path to try and catch the monsters.
- Gobblet Gobblers is a strategy and memory game in which players try to get three in a row by moving pieces around the board. Players can eat their opponent’s pieces by piling their own on top of them. This game is a bit like a better version of tic tac toe.
Benefits of Playing Board Games for 3-5 Year Olds
Playing board games has numerous advantages for young children, including:
- Social skill development: Board games require children to interact with others, take turns, and work together toward a common goal, which aids in the development of social skills.
- Cognitive skills development: Board games can help a child’s memory, attention span, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills.
- Motor skill development: Many board games require children to use fine motor skills, such as picking up and moving game pieces, which aids in the development of hand-eye coordination.
- Academic skill development: Board games that involve counting, matching, and recognizing colors and shapes can be a fun and engaging way to start developing your child’s academic skills.
Conclusion
Board games are an excellent tool for promoting the development of young children. Children aged 3-5 can develop social skills, cognitive skills, motor skills, and academic skills by playing games like Hoot Owl Hoot, Animal Upon Animal, Dragomino, Hisss, Snail Sprint, and Snug as a Bug in a Rug.
When choosing board games for your child, keep their age, ability to understand rules, what they are interested in, and the playability of the game in mind. You can help your child learn critical thinking skills while having fun by playing games with them. So, why not incorporate board games into your child’s playtime routine?
