Board Games for 3-Year-Old Boys

Candy Land

• Two to four players may play this classic children's game, which comes in various incarnations. Players pick cards showing color squares or pictures, which match the colors or pictures on the stepping-stone path (players move their gingerbread tokens to the next space of that color or picture).

  Players also may land on squares that keep them stationary on a spot until they draw a card of a certain color. The first player to reach the candy castle and the king wins the game.

Chutes and Ladders

• Three-year-old boys may have familiarity with the concepts of taking turns, getting rewards and facing consequences. "Chutes and Ladders" reinforces those concepts, letting players climb ladders for performing good deeds and slide down the chutes for behaving badly.

  Pictures help players understand what's going on in the game. The spinner that determines movement on the board stays in the single digits, though players will see higher numbers as they progress on the board. The first player to move his piece from square 1 to square 100 on the board wins the game.

Hi-Ho! Cherry-O

• Cherry picking takes center stage in this game, in which players spin an arrow to receive their instructions on how many cherries to pick from the tree and put in their basket. Like "Chutes and Ladders," this game uses some counting skills, but only up to 10.

  An arrow stopping on a bird or dog results in a cherry loss; players must remove two cherries from their basket and put them back on the tree. If a player lands on a spilled bucket, he must empty his bucket and start over. The first player to land 10 cherries in his basket wins the game.

Lucky Ducks

• While an action-packed game like "Hungry Hungry Hippos" is recommended for ages 4 and up, "Lucky Ducks" provides some motion entertainment that may intrigue a 3-year-old boy. As small ducks quack and swim around a motorized pond, a player chooses a duck from the pond and checks underneath to see if its color matches the color of his nest.

  One version of "Lucky Ducks" features different-color circles on the bottom of each duck, while another version features various shapes of various colors. The game, which requires two "C" batteries, helps kids become more comfortable recognizing colors and shapes. The first player to find his three matching ducks wins the game.