Board Game Suggestions for 3 Year Old / Preschooler

Candy Land! My son calls it "Landy Can." :) He loves it.

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Kids Uno. It's awesome. It comes in a little red barn.

Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders!

We love leapfrogs dominoes game. It has matching colors, opposites, shapes, and numbers.
Candy land, Uno, my 2 yr old loves break the ice. Cuties..
hope these arent repeats.

Thy Busytown Game. It's based on the characters of Busytown/Richard Scarry. It's a cooperative game (http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=busytown+game&am.... The publisher, I Can Do That Games, also has several others for kids ages 2.5-5-iish, like one on Green Eggs & Ham, The Cat & The Hat, and Curious George, that are all generally well reviewed.

Any kind of memory/matching game (most major cartoons/shows have their own version with pics of the characters).

24-piece puzzles. There is a nice one that is out there that is The Very Hungry Caterpillar (based on the book).

Perfection, connect 4, go fish, candy land, chutes and ladders

The brand "Think Fun"... makes AWESOME games for kids and adults...
you can check it out via Amazon or Barnes and Noble... and see all their games and the reviews of it.
My kids, LOVE their games... from even 3 years old and younger.
It is for adults too.
My kids love "Rush Hour" for example, and they could play it from even before 3 years old.
These games promotes creativity and problem solving.

Again, ALL ages can play it. It is ageless.

Cariboo, Feed the Kitty, Don't Spill the Beans, even Pretty Pretty Princess. Go Fish is good if you get a cardholder.

You might want to try Candy Land. My BFF has the newer version for her granddaughter, neither of us like the new board layout. It's great if you can find an older version.

Other suggestions...
Go Fish (buy the actual cards with the pictures)
Chutes and Ladders
Cootie

I believe Cranium makes a game for preschoolers. I'm not familar with it, but we have several of the Cranium games for older kids and enjoy them all.

I've not read your other responses...

trouble
alligator dentist - I can't remember the name - but it's SOOO fun..you press the teeth on the alligator and the one who presses the wrong one, it shuts...it's sooo much fun!!!

yahtzee - taught my kids about numbers and adding - yes at 3 they can still learn to do this!

Hi-Ho Cherry-o...

Lets go fishing....

candyland

I can't remember...ooooh sorry - you asked for calm before bedtime...i'm not sure which of these would be...

We have the game Feed the Kitty. It is for children a little older but we started playing it w/our daughters when our youngest was a little over 3 & our oldest was around 9. It's a fun game and your 3 yr old can count the mice & plus it helps w/left & right.

I had a game for my kids called snail race. It was great as you weren't playing against each other, you were just cheering the snails on. Very non competitive, but great color matching, counting, and waiting your turn game. You can play with as many people as you want.

For sit-down games with our 3 year old, our family favorites include Richard Scarry's Busytown Eye Found It and Dr. Suess' One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish Memory Game. For games that get you up moving around we enjoy Horton Hears a Who You To The Rescue, and Green Eggs and Ham Speedy Diner. We also have Cat in the Hat I Can Do That, which my child likes but we parents get tired of "pretending" to be challenged every turn, it would be better for multiple children . I have also purchased Curious George Hide and Seek Zoo for my child's upcoming birthday, so can not rate it, but I've been happy with all of the games from this company so I think it will be fun. You can see these all at www.icandothatgames.com but I ordered mine from Amazon. For a game that focuses on learning letters and reading we like Super Why ABC Letter Game. For a classic board game our child likes Candyland.

you've received a lot of games we do with our 3 yr old but we also play a lot of memory games. Goodnight Moon and other memory games are her favorite because she's good!

I'm not sure if it's still on the shelves, but Monopoly Town is quite good for counting. There are a few "flaws" with it, in that sometimes the car miscounts if you don't move it carefully but it's a fun game for that age. Hopefully they work out the kinks in the game as it is a good starter for the Monopoly family of games. Just modify the game if your child is not quite at the money stage.
Diggity Dog is another that my son enjoyed at that age. Research the reviews first to see if they would be games you would like. Puzzles are also great to work on together.

My 3 year old loves dominoes! Not the "normal" ones but kid ones that have pictures to match. Nice to get him matching and introduces the concept of the wild card - the sun matches everything.

He also likes Candyland, Zingo, Flipping Frogs (but that is a little frustrating) and Shopping Cart Dash (I hate the set up on that one, though). He's not a fan of Crocodile Dentist after the first time it chomped his finger. I have Hi Ho Cherry-O and Cranium Hullabaloo on their way from amazon. Both got good reviews for his age group.

Candy Land, Hi Ho Cherry-o, Red Rover, Zingo, Cooties and Don't Break the Ice are faves in this house. I have to admit that I am not a big fan of the set up for Don't Break the Ice, but my kids get such a kick out of the game, I can't say no to it (well I try not to say no to it :) ). And Cranium Cariboo Island is my son's absolute favorite. He loves getting that treasure. I love that it's not really competitive (it's a team effort to open the chest) and that you can change the cards to be harder as your child gets older.

the one my little ones always liked at a really young age is hi ho cheerio. Also it takes a while to get the concept down, but connect 4 is a good one. Alex is 4 and we have been working on Go fish, you can have your little one paired with a partner to assist. Slap jack is fun, but not a good before bed game ( they get riled up) I Spy books are fun, not a game really but an idea. Also my kids love to do puzzles.

Oh I love this thread, we LOVE games, here is the list that we play:
I spy (preschooler game) - does not need to be able to read
Hullabaloo - MY favorite lol
go fish
ladybuy game
1,2,3 go
sequence for kids
counting 1 to 30
cootie
bendomino jr
coo coo the rocking clown game

and lots of M & D puzzles (12 pcs, 24, 48, 60 and 100) for 4 yr old...

There are some cute Yatzee games that might work for that age, it's basically rolling dice and matching pictures. Mommy would have to do the scoring and some of the strategy might be lost but they'll get it after a bit.

Puzzles are super great at that age too.

Just have to plug UNO as our all time super fav family game night game, my kids are 6 and 8, though. Have fun making memories and making smarty kids!!

I asked this same question last week or so. I only had Memory, so you are ahead of me already. You can look in my asked questions to find more answers. Most popular was "Hi Ho Cherrio" and "Candyland." I bought the "Ladybug Game" for now. It's an okay game. Son loves it. Only comes with 4 ladybugs, so only for 1-4 players. Plan to get Hi Ho Cherrio soon. BTW - Chutes & Ladders comes in a Marvel Comic theme, so your son could be Iron Man or the Hulk as he climbs and falls. I think I will buy that one soon too for my 3 yr old.

If your 3 year old is at all active then I have to highly recommend the Cat in The Hat game I can do that game. We got it as a gift for our 4 year old and it is by far the best gave for all of us. We have all the other traditional kid games and some think fun games as well but the I can do that has been our favorite as a family.

Chutes and Ladders, Candy Land, and Sequence for Kids are all fun at that age and not too boring for the parents. You can also play Go Fish with a regular deck of cards or get a specific Go Fish deck (we got a cute one last year from Gap with fish-shaped cards).

I also sell Discovery Toys and we have a couple of good board games for preschoolers:
Zingo (not exclusive to Discovery Toys, but if you buy through us, you get a lifetime warranty)
Letter Fun Lotto
Short Vowel Fun
The Princess and the Dragon (book + CD and accompanying game)
ABSeas

You can find these games and more at http://www.discoverytoyslink.com/karenchao

Have fun!

I absolutely *love* the Curious George Discovery Beach game (http://www.target.com/Curious-George-Discovery-Beach-Game...! My daughter got it for Christmas when she was 3 1/2, and it has been a huge hit, both with her, and anyone else she asks to play it with her. It's a very short game, which is nice if you only have a few minutes. But if you have more time, you can play several rounds without it getting boring.

I love the Toy Story 3 version of Yahtzee Jr. It's my favorite game to play with my son. And I just taught him how to play Go Fish. He also really liked the Cariboo game, the one with the rubber balls. But for some reason I think they've changed that one to one with an island or something. The new version isn't nearly as good.

I've also heard that Sorry is fun for little kids. Our friends like Richard Scarry's Busytown, but that may be for slightly older children.

I hate Candyland and Chutes and Ladders. They are so boring, and my son gets so mad when he has to go backwards. I know he needs to learn how to be a better sport, but there are more entertaining games for me that will teach him that.