Best Board Games For Little Kids
Family Game Night is super important to us. Growing up with board games around the table is one of my most favorite memories. Long before we had kids my husband and I made game night together a priority. Back then it was just the two of us, or sometimes we would have friends over. As our family grew, game night didn’t stop! We found ways to play some of our favorite games with the kids and also found some new games we love!
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Best Board Games for Little Kids
Hot Potato
This is one of our favorite games with little ones. Our kids would even play when they were as little as one year old. It’s wild, frantic, laugh out loud fun that can be played by the whole family! Every time we play we all laugh so much!
Guess Who
Guess who was one of my favorite games as a kid. Now as a parent I love playing with my son.
Ants in the Pants
This game is so fun because it’s a free-for-all! Our 2 year old often picks them up and places them in (we play on the floor) while the rest of us really try hard to flip them in!
Feed the Woozle
Feed the Woozle is the award winning game of silly snacks and mixed-up moves with three play levels so it will grow with your child. You work together to feed the hungry big-mouth Woozle silly snacks from the spoon before they run out!
Twister
Twister is a great game to teach little ones lefts, rights and colors! We put a sock on one foot and one hand (lets say their left) then if it says left hand yellow we remind them that’s their sock hand. For my older son (4) he no longer need the socks but my little guy (2) does. The age says 6+ but I think this is a great game for little kids. While they might not play it perfect, they have a TON of fun trying.
Clue Jr.
My younger son doesn’t play this one, but my older son, who is 4, LOVES this game. Clue was another one of my favorite games as a kid. I was super excited to play this one with my son! I’m also super excited he loves it as much as I do!
Chutes and Ladders
There is something so simple about this that makes it fun. We played it often last year when we were working on counting to 100!
Jenga for the Littles
These are super cute. It’s the classic Jenga game only for littles. The adorable cartoon faces and the fact that they are durable and waterproof (hello easy cleaning!) Make them perfect for little fingers!
Uno Moo!
This plays similar to Classic Uno (my boys prefer the classic). The farm animals have come out of their barn and you round them up by matching colors or animals. The first player to get all of their figures back in the barn wins.
Hi Ho Cherry-O
If you have really really little ones, maybe skip this as the pieces are small but our 2 year old plays it. As long as they are not putting things in their mouth it should be fine. My boys love this game (we have the older version) and I love that it helps develop and practice basic math skills – adding and subtracting.
Trouble
Who doesn’t love this classic game? It’s great for little kids to practice counting, although we usually play with less pieces because of their attention span. Maybe one or two “guys” as my son calls them.
Sequence for Kids
Even if they can’t read yet, younger children can enjoy playing this great strategy-building game. The Sequence Game for Kids is easy to play yet challenging and exciting. Just play a card from your hand, place a chip on a corresponding game board space and when you have 4 in a row, it’s a “sequence” and you win.
Don’t Break the Ice
My boys LOVE hammering away at this game! The only complaint I have is that the set up takes a bit for impatient toddlers who just want to hammer more!
SET
There are a lot of things about SET that make it perfect for littles. It’s really just a matching game and little kids can absolutely match things. There is also no turn taking which littles sometimes find frustrating. They do have a SET Jr which we have never tried but looks neat. If you already own SET you can make do with what you have and build on it. First have them match just shape or color then add pattern or number. It’s a great family game that kids can compete WITH adults!
Sneaky Squirrel
This game play is really similar to Hi Ho Cherry O. With the addition of colors, and the squirrel squeezer, it makes it feel like a different game. I love that it reinforces color learning and helps develop matching skills, strategic thinking, turn-taking, hand-eye coordination, and fine motor skills.
Giant Ker Plunk
Kerplunk is a really fun game for little kids, but this is GIANT! So obviously its EVEN MORE FUN!
Honeybee Tree
This is basically a pretty version of Kerplunk. I love watching my son laugh and say “Oh no”, when someone gets a bunch of bees that come down the tree.
This is another one I’m surprised by the age recommendation. We started playing this when my oldest was only three. We don’t use a timer or keep track of anything. We just have one person wear the headband and then have the rest of the family describe what it is (I let him do most of the describing) or if he’s guessing we take turns giving him clues.
Connect 4
This is a super easy game for little kid but the only down side is it’s only two players. So it’s not so great for family game night.
Uno
My boys LOVE Uno! It’s such a great game for little ones, I’m not sure why the recommend age is 7+? It’s a great way to teach colors and numbers. We do take the special cards out like the wilds, reverses and +2’s. Recently we’ve added wilds back in now that they really get the game (well our 4 year old does). My boys like playing this one WAY more than Uno Moo which is meant for little kids.
Scattergories
You might be surprised to see this one on this list, but I LOVE Scattergories so I figured out a way to play it with my kids. We roll the letter dice (or you could draw a letter from a hat) then read one of the lists (I skip things they wouldn’t know) taking turns answering them. It’s an AWESOME way to practice letter sounds!
This is a game we play at least once a week. We keep it up in the play room. It’s such a fun game. If you’ve never heard of it, you listen to what they say (hop to a green) then everyone hops to a green pad. There are a variety of actions in the game (like slide to a food). It’s really really fun even for the grownups. We play over and over again. I will tell you this game is sadly discontinued 🙁 but right now on Amazon it’s 39.99 (last time I looked it was like 80!) We found our game at a thrift store though so check there first!
4 Way Countdown
This is also called shut the box if you’ve heard of that. Basically you roll the dice and put down your numbers. Lets say you roll a 5 and 3 my son would put down the 8 (because he likes to count the total!) – if the 8 was down he would put down and 5 and 3 – if those were down we help him through it trying to find two numbers that add up to 8.
These card games have easy concepts for young children to grasp. This Paw Patrol version is the one we have because that’s what our kids are into right now. 
This is another one that can easily be modified for little kids. We roll the dice and see if we have any numbers that match, or if any count in order 1,2,3… We don’t really keep score or keep track of our rolls. We just focus on having fun finding matches and counting.
Suspend Jr
This game is a lot of fun. We got it about a year and a half ago and we have loved it! It kinda reminds me of Barrel of Monkeys — remember that game?
Cat in the Hat I Can Do That!
The beauty of this game is in its simplicity. Easy-to-follow instructions and super-easy assembly ensure that your family will be playing in no time and it’s perfect for shorter attention spans of younger kids. We also love that this game goes beyond traditional board games to get kids up and moving. Kids have a lot of fun balancing, crawling, leaping, and skipping with the whimsical props. The only concern we had was with the game’s durability. The foam pieces definitely won’t last as long as your vintage Monopoly set. On the plus side, the flexible, soft props guard well against injuries or mishaps. Board games are not the only way we have fun with our little kids, we also play video games every once in a while for family game night. Here are some of our favorite family games. 
This game is a lot of fun for the whole family. It’s a bunch of mini games and while some are easy enough for my little ones, some are a bit tricky for them. Overall though, they adore playing this game.
Carnival Games – Wii
My boys have a lot of fun playing this game. It’s all your traditional carnival games (ring toss, popping balloons with darts, etc.) It’s really fun for us grownups too!
Just Dance – Wii, Xbox or PS3
There seems to be about a million different Just Dance games, this is the one we have but I’m sure they are all similar. My kids (and us adults) have a lot of fun playing this game.
Mario Kart – Wii
We have the Game Cube version (Double Dash) and play it on the Wii, but I’ve heard great things about the newer Wii version. My husband and I used to play this in college often, so we love that our boys will now play with us. It’s a really fun game for everyone.
Lego Worlds – PS4, Xbox One, PC online
My husband and 4 year old will sometimes play this game together on the weekends while my younger son naps. We have it on PC (through my husband Steam account). It’s a really neat game. My son loves exploring all the different worlds (Egyptian deserts, candy lands, arctic snow worlds, prehistoric lava worlds, etc.) and as you explore each different world you get to find treasure and items as well as unlock characters.
Have more games I should add? let me know in the comments!
