Best Board Games for Four Year Olds
We’re sharing the best board games for four year olds! Updated for 2024.
Check out all our age based recommendations
Age 2 — Age 3 — Age 5 — Age 6 — Age 7 — Age 8-10
Four is truly an exciting year for children developmentally. Solidly in the preschool years, four year olds are testing their boundaries, learning to follow multi-step instructions, and likely talking up a storm!
Playing board games can be a valuable tool for a child’s holistic development. Kids will be able to improve their concentration and focus — prepping their attention spans for the fast approaching school years, increase their fine motor skills as they manipulate game pieces, grow in their social skills by practicing good sportsmanship, cooperation, and turn taking, as well as enhance their language skills through an increased vocabulary and better communication strategies.
And of course, most importantly, playing games together as a family will strengthen the family bond.
What to Look for in Board Games for Four Year Olds
- Simple Rules: While children are growing in age and confidence with their game play, it’s still wise to look for games that have relatively streamlined rules. We aren’t looking to simplify adult games for the four year old, but rather find games that a four year old can confidently follow on their own without much or any adult interference.
- Decision Making: You want games that help kids learn to strategize. That means looking for games where they have to make a decision between various options throughout the game and avoiding games where there are no choices to be made, rather cards are flipped and dice are rolled and that’s that. Games with these early level strategy decisions will help kids develop critical thinking skills.
- 15-20 minute play times: As a general rules, a child’s attention span equals about 2-3 minutes for every year they are. At four year old children can on average handle fully focusing on a game for about 15 minutes. So you’ll want to seek out games that match this timespan.
- Engaging Themes: Around age four, kids’ imaginations really start to develop and they can take an interest in fantasy based themes. Princesses, dragons, superheroes, magic often appeal to kids beginning around age four so it’s great to look for games that support their growing interests and imagination.
- Quality Components: Choosing a quality, well made game will help it see your child (and any siblings too) through their younger years while holding up to the sometimes rough play that kids can engage in.
- Educational Value: Games provide a great opportunity to learn some of the budding educational skills four year olds are working on. We look for games that help four year olds with foundational mathematical concepts, cognitive development through problem solving, and lots of opportunities to nurture their rapidly developing language skills.
A Quick Note on Age Recommendations
Age recommendations are just that: recommendations.
Four is merely a suggested starting age. Many of these games can and will be enjoyed by kids older than four or perhaps even younger than four as well. These are all great options for siblings to play together!
Because of the variability in ages, abilities, and interests, there can be a lot of overlap in game compatibility for children. We recommend you check out the age posts for at least one year younger and one year older than your children’s current age.
While these games are intended for four year olds (meaning that they are games four year olds should be able to play without modifications) It is also not a cause for alarm if your four year old is not ready for these games yet. If you try one and they don’t seem interested or it’s a touch too challenging, give them some time and try again in a few weeks or months. Kids grow quickly and they’ll be playing before you know it!
Best Board Games for Four Year Olds
Honk!
It would be hard to overstate how much I love Honk! This is an excellent early strategy game for four year olds and beyond! Heck, I love playing it for me! Players are working to collect different breeds of geese from the center by gathering the food cards necessary to meet each one’s diet. Players get more points if they collect larger sets of geese so kids will learn to plan how to get the cards they need in time for when a goose is available to feed. It’s plays a lot like Splendor for kids!
I Want My Teeth Back
This delightfully silly game is all about getting back your monster’s teeth. Kids are able to practice simple counting and learning how to collect sets of cards to take actions. It’s perfect for four year olds!
Best Worst Ice Cream
A game all about making deliciously awful ice cream cones with flavors like hot dog, worms, and snail slime, while also improving their critical thinking skills. Players win by being the first to fill up their ice cream cone. Scoops of ice cream are in the center and players will try to match the top card of the deck to one of the ice cream piles. The back of the card shows three flavors, one of which is on the front. They can use this knowledge to strategically guess which flavor will match the card. If they’re right, they take all the cards of that flavor to add to their cone. Games play quick and kids pick up on the strategy even quicker! (This is the kid version of Mantis!)
Dragomino
Dragomino is a simplified version of Kingdomino for kids. While Kingdomino is perfectly possible to play with younger ages, I really like the streamlined scoring, tile placement restrictions, and probability assessments kids will make during Dragomino. We’ve had this game for years and it continues to be a smashing success with our kids from age four to about six.
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 for encouraging critical thinking. Kids will learn to use known information to make educated guesses on unknown facts. This has also been a game that our older children have come to love playing with their younger siblings which provides so many wonderful learning opportunities itself!
Captain Pepe Treasure Ahoy
A legacy game can be a great way to get kids excited about and comfortable with games. There are 25 chapters that take your whole crew on a cooperative, slide puzzle adventure. As you advance through the chapters you’ll unlock new challenges and additional rules, gradually scaling up the difficulty as everyone becomes more confident with the game.
Hoot Owl Hoot
This is our favorite Candyland alternative! Kids will try to help all the owls get back to their nest before the sun rises. Kids flip over color cards and select owls to move to the next spot on the track with that color. They’re provided with simple choices that will impact whether or not they win the game.
Turtle Splash
Turtle Splash always draws kids in! It cleverly combines a dexterity challenge with memory skill building. Players will flick the turtle down the slide, then flip over animal tiles that correspond to the next space on their board. If you can advance across your board first you win!
Midnight Market
Midnight Market is a memory game that is particularly good for sibling groups! It has a three-part scoring system that allows for more than one player to win. The pieces are nice and sturdy for small hands and the theme adorable to keep attentions locked in.
Monster Chase (pre-order)
In this cooperative memory game, monsters are creeping out from under the bed. Players will have to work together to find the item in the bedroom that will scare the monster away. There are different difficulty levels so you can adjust the game to meet each players’ needs. We’ve been fans of this game for years and are so glad it’s coming back for more kids to enjoy!
