Need some great board game for four year olds? We’ve got you!
Four is an exciting year for children developmentally. Testing their boundaries and learning to follow instructions, engaging in pretend play, and talking up a storm, the four year old child is busy! Activities such as board games are a great way to play and connect together, while also helping them work on those ever developing social, emotional, and physical skills.
We’ve rounded up some of our favorite games to play with four year olds. Kids each age are all unique and develop at their own pace, so if your child isn’t ready to play games yet, that’s okay! These games are also by no means only for 4 year olds and can be a great fit for kids both younger and older!
It’s important to note, that all children are different. These board games are not only for four year olds. Your four year old may also like games we suggested in our lists for both younger or older children! It’s also entirely possible that kids aren’t quite ready to play games at four, so don’t be discouraged if games aren’t quite going how you hoped! They will before you know it!
Be sure to check out our other posts in this series:
Great Board Games for: Toddlers, 3 Year Olds, 5 Year olds, 6 Year Olds, 7 Year Old, 8 Year Olds!
Be sure to also check out our updated 2024 list for Great Games for Four Year olds!
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1. Dragon’s Breath
This cute gem collection game is always a hit. Kids will examine a tower of gems and say which color gem they are going to collect from those that fall out of the tower. Then a ring is removed from the tower and a few fems fall out. If any of your color fall, you get to collect them. Kids work to assess and predict which colors are more likely to fall than others to collect the most gems. Quick, simple, fun.
2. Barnyard Bunch
Barnyard Bunch is a cooperative game where kids will work to keep the animals from running away and bring them back to the barn. Each game plays quickly. Barnyard Bunch is a great choice for kids to begin practicing playing on their own without the need for an adult to play along. (Though if you do, you won’t mind.)
3. Sequence for Kids
Sequence is an all time favorite, whether for kids or adults. We love the kid version for the animal theme. Sequence is a great game for beginning pattern recognition. Kids will look for ways to play cards that give them the ability to connect 4 in a row to win. But if they just want to play cards that are their favorite animal, that’s great too!
4. Snail Sprint
Snail Sprint is one of my favorite Candyland alternatives. In this game you’ll make choices by deciding which dice you’ll use to move a snail, and which one you’ll use as your destination color. I love that you’re able to move all the snail colors and that they don’t belong to any one player.
5. Dragomino
Dragomino is the kid version of Kingdomino. While Kingdomino is perfectly possible to play with younger ages, I really like the simplified scoring, tile placement restrictions, and probability assessment kids will make with the dragon eggs. We’ve been playing this one for years and I continue to be impressed by it each time.
6. Difference Junior
Difference Junior is like taking the Highlights magazine hidden pictures pages and making a game out of it. It’s excellent for 4 year olds (or even younger on the easy levels!) You’ll look for the two differences between your card and the center card on the table — find them before your opponent and you get the card! It’s very similar to Spot It but with a Spot the Difference twist which works incredibly well for this age and is highly replayable! I love it for restaurants too!
7. Color It
Baby’s first roll and write! Color it! Is a great choice for kids who love a game that functions as an activity. You’ll roll dice and then color in areas on your player sheet that match those restrictions. At the end of the game, you’ll have a cute little piece of artwork you can hang up!
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8. My First Adventure (game book)
Part game, part activity book. My First Adventure: Finding the Dragon is an adorable flip the flap book where kids get the choose how the story goes. This is a cooperative, story telling game where kids will make choices together about what the hero of the story does. Perfect for as a bedtime story to read together on the couch.
9. Outfoxed!
Gather clues and use evidence to rule out suspects in Outfoxed. This cooperative deduction game is great for the family and one that your kids will enjoy playing for years. We love deduction games to encourage critical thinking and using known information and making educated guesses on the unknown facts.
10. Concept Kids
Whether you have a crowd of kids to entertain or just one, Concept Kids is a clever party game for this age. Concept Kids is language independent and works great for emerging readers. Everyone will attempt to guess an animal by playing pawns on icons that respond to animal attributes. There are over 100 animal cards you can use to guess or you can make up your own animals! (Our kids love trying to get us to guess Pokemon characters.
