The Best Board Games for 2-Year-Olds
Both of our kids were able to start enjoying board games with us when they were 2-years-old. Generally speaking, 2-years-old is the time that kids can really start grasping those basics - taking turns, rolling dice, moving pieces. These are the skills that will set them up for a lifetime of fun family game nights - so finding the right games for the youngest gamers in the family is an important task.
Playing games ignites our imagination, and they certainly teach us many useful skills like problem-solving and abstract thinking. But, most of all, they are fun - and they provide invaluable bonding time for the whole family.
Right now our kids are 6 and 3. Many of the games we had when our son was 2 are the same games we’re enjoying again with our daughter now. And, now that’s she’s 3, we’re ready to put together our very first list in what will become a series of best board games by age - the best board games for 2-year-olds. This is a personal list based on our own experiences, and I hope it helps you find a great starting point for your own game night.
If you have kids, you know there’s a huge difference between 24-months and 35-months-old. Kids grow and learn so fast that the term “2-years-old” actually covers quite a range of abilities. Most of these games require mastering the basic concept of taking turns - and then practicing something along the lines of colors or counting. But the rules and the gameplay are of course all very simple. This is the beginning of gaming, after all.
Whether or not your kids are ready to play all of these games very much depends on where they are on the 2-year-old spectrum, and how ready they are to take turns and follow simple directions. The good news is that all of these games play very quickly, so attention span should definitely not be much of an issue.
I hope this list helps you find a new game to share with your little ones. Let us know what you think, and make sure to tell us what games your kids love in the comments!
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10. Shopping List
Published by Orchard Toys
We have quite a few memory games in our house - games where you flip cards over and try to find matches. Most of them are actually from my childhood (does anyone else in the world own Hamtaro memory?) And we found out pretty quickly that a simple game of memory is a really popular choice with the little ones.
Perhaps the most popular memory game in our house is one called Shopping List. Our daughter received it for her birthday and she was so proud to have her own game. She punched out every single piece by herself while we weren’t looking and had the whole thing set out ready to play when she came to get us. “Ready go shopping?” she said.
Everyone has their own shopping list that they are trying to fulfill and a shopping cart or basket to put their items in. The first person to find all of the groceries they’re looking for wins. Games like this obviously work on memory skills and the ability to pay attention - but they also secretly work on important basics like waiting your turn to try again.
9. Panda’s Picnic
Published by Peaceable Kingdom
When you’re choosing games for 2-year-olds, it’s doubly important to keep engagement and imagination in mind. Panda’s Picnic is a game that has been capturing the imagination of our daughter for years now, and that’s because of the fact the the box is actually a picnic basket, and the game comes complete with a picnic blanket, plates, and cardboard pieces of various food items to complete your picnic play session.
Like many effective games for 2-year-olds, Panda’s Picnic focuses on basic skills like colors and shapes which makes it great for gameschooling. The idea is basically a simple matching game to complete your plate - either by color or shape. But the imaginative play that it’s built for makes it really shine and stand out. Our daughter still repeatedly grabs this picnic basket off of the shelf, pulls out the picnic blanket, and sets up to either play the game or simply play pretend. Oftentimes we use our puppets to join in on the picnic. We’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of this one.
8. Snail’s Pace Race
Designed by Alex Randolph and Published by Ravensburger
Snail’s Pace Race is incredibly simple, but sometimes that’s exactly what you need. It would make a terrific first board game for a child, because it teaches the basics of taking turns, rolling the dice, and moving pieces. It also made our list of the best board games to teach colors. Whichever color you roll is the color of snail that moves closer to the finish line, and that’s basically all there is to it.
Before the game begins, everyone chooses a different colored snail to cheer for. But one twist we enjoy is that you also win if you finish in last place. You take turns rolling the dice and moving the appropriate snails. It’s actually a lot of fun to play with a little one, because it’s hard not to root for your snail - regardless of how simple the game is. And it’s always appreciated that the snails are big, sturdy game pieces made of wood.
7. Count Your Chickens!
Designed by Peggy Brown and Published by Peaceable Kingdom
Peaceable Kingdom is definitely one of our favorite publishers, but the vast majority of Peaceable Kingdom games we have and love are geared towards children ages 4+.
Count Your Chickens!, on the other hand, is definitely suitable for 2-year-olds and for introducing your kids to all of the basics of board games. It was one of the very first games we ever bought for our son, and now we’re enjoying it again with our daughter.
In Count Your Chickens! you’re trying to collect all of the chickens and bring them to the coop with their mom before the fox gets them. On your turn you spin the wheel and it lands on an animal. You then move the mama chicken to the next square with that animal on it and count how many squares you moved. Everyone can count out loud together and then put that many baby chicks into the coop. Unfortunately, if you spin the fox too many times you aren’t going to be able to collect all of the chicks. Cooperative games are our favorite way to play and this is a great place to start.
6. Rhino Hero Junior
Designed by Scott Frisco & Steven Strumpf and Published by HABA
Rhino Hero Junior is a brand new game for 2021 in HABA’s My Very First Games series - and you should get those pre-orders in now if you’re shopping for a little one. We got to check this one out early and it’s truly spectacular for 2-year-olds. Even our 4-year-old loves to play and gets great practice out of the motor skills being practiced here. Like the original Rhino Hero, the game focuses on stacking a tower. But instead of using thin cards, this junior version has thick toddler-friendly cardboard to stack.
We don’t have many dexterity games for 2-year-olds, so this one really stands out. But it also has alternative game modes to simply practice colors, matching, and numbers as well. And, Rhino Hero Junior and Baby Spider Monkey are two spectacular wooden game pieces to add to our collection. The quality is very high with this one, and it seems to fit a much-needed niche for 2-year-old games.
5. Roll & Play
Roll & Play by ThinkFun is a brilliant little game for toddlers. It comes with a big soft colorful die and a stack of cards with different actions to perform on them. Think giggle and laugh - or roar like a lion. In order to play, all you have to do is roll the die, draw a card from the appropriate stack based on the color you get, and do what it says.
Our daughter has a lot of energy and this kind of game is great for her. One house rule we experiment with is that you have to keep doing the same action until it’s your turn again. While you’re playing, you’ll certainly be practicing colors and numbers and gross motor skills - but most importantly you’ll be having fun.
Our daughter is now 3 but she still thinks it’s an absolute crack up to play this game with her entire family. In fact, our 7-year-old son loves getting silly and joining in on the fun too. It’s actually quite heartwarming when we all act like a bunch of goofballs together like that. And honestly you really can’t ask for much more than that out of a game.
4. Friends and Neighbors: The Helping Game
Friends and Neighbors is another game by Peaceable Kingdom that focuses on cooperation instead of competition. One of the reasons we think so highly of the game is because our daughter is obsessed with it. It’s one of the games on our shelf she thinks of as her game - and she grabs it to play all the time.
Personally, what I love about the game is that it’s one of the games from Peaceable Kingdom that focuses on empathy. The entire point of the game is matching friends in need with the object that will help them. Each match also comes with a cute little rhyme to read - and all of the rhymes are even collected in a little book that comes with the game.
As far as game mechanics go, it’s a very simple game to understand and explain. You have a board in front of you like a bingo card full of friends that are sad, and they all need something to help them. Maybe they need an umbrella or a ladder or a bowl of dog food - and it’s up to you to find it for them. All you have to do is draw a token out of a bag and see if it will help someone on your card.
Our daughter is in love with this game and always asks to play several times in a row. I can see the smile in her eyes when she’s helping her friends and it makes my heart swell.
3. Candy Land
Published by Hasbro
I honestly have no idea why Candy Land catches so much grief these days. It does exactly what it intends to do. It introduces toddlers to how games work with mechanics like taking turns, drawing cards, matching colors, and moving across a game board.
I have very fond memories of playing Candy Land at my grandmother’s house. It was one of the only games she had at her house, and, even though I was very little, I vividly remember going to get it in her pantry. The art and the characters are definitely enough to get the imagination of a 2-year-old fired up. Who are these awesome people living in this crazy land of candy?
2-year-olds can definitely play along in Candy Land because it’s a simple matter of drawing a card and moving your character to the next square of that color. It’s not supposed to be rocket science people - so let’s lay off of the Candy Land bashing. Think back and perhaps you’ll recall how excited you were when you were little and you drew a character card instead of a color card and you got to skip giant chunks of the game board. Candy Land is a toddler tradition and that’s that.
2. Building Site
Published by HABA
The games in HABA’s My Very First Games series are truly fantastic, and the newest welcome addition is Building Site. With their experience in wooden children’s toys, HABA is definitely the leader in high-quality components in board games. I love the durability of these components - especially the dump truck and the wooden pieces that actually build a little house. It’s all just very charming and incredibly engaging for the little ones. And the really cool thing is that the game pieces are so great - they can be used for free play without even playing the game.
Building Site is a memory game that will help young kids learn the basics of board games - like taking turns and following rules. You can actually learn a lot about construction from the story in the back of the rule book too, and both my kids loved listening to it. Obviously the free play concept is a big part of this game, as it’s compatible with HABA’s Kullerbu track system too.
Building Site actually doesn’t have a way to lose built into it, which can be quite refreshing for games with little ones where you want to focus on the fun. You can optionally add some bird tokens to the memory game to make it harder - and my kids and I came up with a system where drawing 5 total birds means you didn’t finish your construction in time. At the end of the day, I can’t stress enough how attractive the entire package is - and it shouldn’t be underestimated how much that can spark the imagination.
1. First Orchard
Published by HABA
If a friend asked me what to buy as their child’s first board game, my answer would be First Orchard every time. HABA’s wooden components make this board game the perfect game for 2-year-olds. There aren’t any little pieces to lose or knock around - and these large wooden fruits are easy for little hands to grab. Just like Little Garden, the pieces in this game are also ideal for playing with simply as toys.
The point of the game is to harvest all of the fruit before the raven makes it to the garden and eats it all up. If you roll red you should harvest a red apple, if you roll yellow you should harvest a lemon, and if you roll the raven he gets one step closer to the garden.
Our little one often has an adorable reaction to winning - she feels bad that the raven didn’t get to eat. So she brings him into the garden to gobble up some fruit at the end anyway. I don’t think there’s a better or more attractive way to introduce your kids to the joy of a family game night.
For more of the best family board games for each age, make sure to read:
The Best Board Games for 3-Year-Olds
The Best Board Games for 4-Year-Olds
The Best Board Games for 5-Year-Olds
The Best Board Games for 6-Year-Olds
The Best Board Games for 7-Year-Olds
The Best Board Games for 8-Year-Olds
What was your child’s first board game? What’s your favorite board game for 2-year-olds? Did we miss yours? Let us know in the comments!
