Board Games for Young Kids That Aren't Terrible - Paperwave #2

(Welcome to Paperwave: a free newsletter focused on board and card games, Lego, art books, and other cozy objects likely to spark joy with nerds).

Like 30% of the reason I wanted to have kids was to grow my own board game partners. They’re now 7 and 4 and I’m happy to report that so far this plan is working perfectly. They’ve bloomed into full-blown board game novices.

I’ve been helping things along for years with all the subtlety of Ralphie in A Christmas story by strategically leaving things “lying around” for them to discover on their own like a wide-open copy of the D&D monster manual or a small stack of Magic the Gathering commons. 

With the subterfuge now paying off, it was important that I not squander it getting stuck playing Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders 5000 times. So let the hard yards I’ve been putting in over the last several years save you time, with this hand-curated list of board games perfect for young kids that you won’t completely hate.

BTW for our purposes here we’re talking pre-reading kids - board games great for 3, 4, or 5 year olds. So these game recommendations are still kids games! They are not games adults would want to play on their own (with one notable exception I’ll call out when we get to it), and they’re not “adult” board games that also “work for” kids. These are kids-first board game recommendations that I, as a big boy, don’t make my mind go absolutely numb.

Once your kids are slightly older you can graduate them into board gaming proper with games like Kingdomino, Isle of Cats, or Carcassonne. I’ll probably do a full newsletter later on this category of adult board games great for younger players.

The Best Board Games for Young Kids

Image credit: Board Game Quest

Animal Upon Animal is a really great, simple dexterity game and requires you to take turns stacking up oddly-shaped wooden animals. Half the time we play it following the rules, rolling a die and seeing who can stack up all their animals first. But this one also comes off the shelf a lot just as a time-killing general activity, playing without structure. We like to try to see if we can get every single animal balanced on the alligator’s back :) 

Honestly, a shout-out to maker Haba Games in general. Every single kids game they make that I have experienced has been excellent. They seem to be one of the few that really “get it” and make truly universal, high-quality experiences.

Jenga occupies a similar gamespace as Animal Upon Animal and is a good “mainstream” pickup for a family game that will get used for years and years.

Image credit: Little Meeples

Outfoxed! is honestly fantastic. It’s basically a kid’s version of Clue, as you use logic and deduction to figure out which Fox stole the pie by flipping over clues about what clothing and accessories the culprit has. This is the only “Eurogame-style” kids game on this list, with a modular gameplay experience that will be different each time you play.

Dinosaur Escape is a great game to consider for the very young, as early as age 2-3. It’s a good candidate for being a child’s very first board game, but they’ll likely outgrow it earlier, too. Roll dice, flip over ferns to rescue three dinosaurs before the volcano erupts. We like to house rule this one to make it easier (ferns stay flipped up) or harder (you can only flip over a fern if your dino is next to it). It being fully cooperative is a huge plus!

Dungeon Mayhem is a HUGE hit in our house. Pick a D&D character and its associated deck of cards and duke it out with basic attacks, heals, and shields. It’s one of the only non-coorperative games that the kids beg to play. Beware of pile-ons and bad feelings though. With full-on player elimination and no in-game system to stop players from piling onto one another, this game does sometimes end in tears. The older one gets the D&D humor and silliness from reading the cards. The younger one still gets all the game rules and can play by herself, since dealing damage, drawing cards, and healing up is all based on simple icons on the cards themselves.

Image credit: Gamesver

Connect 4 I’ve found is a surprisingly respectable classic - heads and tails above other “staple” games like Monopoly. Purists may look down their nose at it because it’s technically a solved game - the first player can always win if they start in the middle. But this won’t come up when playing with little ones. The rules are simple, it’s teaching them to think ahead and think about the opponent's moves, and is engaging enough for adults to also enjoy. Clacking down the pieces is still satisfying and tactile. It’s helpful that it can be purchased for like $7, too.

Our Absolute Favorite Family Board Game

Image Credit: Board Game Barrister

Dixit is by far the biggest hit with both kids and adults in our house, and the kids ask to play all the time. Using a hand of cards filled with gorgeous abstract, dream-like artwork, players give clues and make up short stories on-the-spot. Other players then have to pick a card in their own hand that best matches the clue the first player just provided. With no words and no reading, the game is fully universal and it’s one of the only board games I’ve ever found to truly work for all ages. We’ve played the game with adults-only several times over the year and it was a hit with those groups, too. It’s rare to find a game that will equally engage a 3 year old, a 33 year old, and a 63 year old.

Just about the only criticism I have is the number of cards included in the base $35 game feels a bit small and limiting. We bought two $25 expansions and now feel we have enough variety to satisfy us and don’t feel like we need to buy any more. 

Make Your Own Storytelling RPG

Using mostly Amiibo we also like to play what I think can only be described as the world’s most basic pen & paper tabletop RPG. It’s more collaborative storytelling and improvisation than following any kind of actual game system. My kids take their Amiibo character, and I ask them what they want they want to do. Then we roll a D6 and if they roll a 4-6 they succeed. 1-3 and they fail. I then narrate what happens based off the results of that roll and then they get to make another decision.

For easier or harder actions they want to try I change the dice rolls, so a 3-6 or 2-6 succeeds. Especially if I’m giving them second (or third) chances to get out of a dangerous situation.

I don’t have any specific plan with this - we’re mostly just playing. But I have a loose vision to eventually add in an actual pencil and paper where they could track HP. Failing an action would now lose them some health, and I’ll give them opportunities to get it back. Or they could collect and draw items to let them do a special action later. 

We tried other “D&D for very young kids!” homebrew systems out there but they were still way too fiddly and game-like for the very young. So this extremely loose “storytelling” system works for us for now - it’s just barely one step away from just normal imaginative play. 

---

These eight suggestions we have learned, from personal experience, can be loads of fun for kids and adults alike. We had to learn the hard way, after disappearing copies of Chutes and Ladders and other “classics” in the middle of the night for our own sanity. But we’re just one family! Maybe Hisss would earn a place on this list if we owned it. Or Rhino Hero.

Please leave a comment with the best family games that are a hit in your home! I’ll read them all. And please feel free to share this newsletter with any new parents in your life, before they end up with a closet filled with Sorry, Monopoly, and Candy Land.