Cooperative Board Games for Preschoolers

The best cooperative games for preschool kids (no reading needed)

Cooperative board games are a new idea for children. Children's games are traditionally competitive ones. The aim is to win.

Competitive games don't harm your child. They can teach things like fairness and good game play.

But cooperative games give you a different game to help build different skills for life.

Preschool Cooperative Board Games

Cooperative board games are about solving a problem together not beating other players. This is good for preschool children because it lets them find out about team work at a young age. It's a good balance for what they learn from competitive board games.

Preschool children need help when they play a board game. They also need help when they play cooperative board games if they are use to competitive games. You will need to show them how to work as a teams so they don't use the same competitive type of game play they use with other board games.

Dinosaur Game

Bambino Dino

Family Pastimes

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So what is the aim with a cooperative board game? It's not to beat other players and win. Instead players usually need to beat the clock. Many of these games have a fun timer element built into the game play. The aim of these games is to get something done before their time runs out. This might be to get garden vegetables picked before winter comes. To find out what is behind a secret door. Or to save a baby dinosaur. The games are designed so players can help each other to beat the clock.

Cooperative games let preschool children have fun as a team - together.

My family has played a few cooperative board games. Harvest Time is the no.1 favorite with the kids (even the older ones). It's fast moving so they don't get bored. It doesn't need the kids to read anything. One of the reasons it's good for preschoolers. The kids also love collecting the vegetable cards. Something I've always found interesting because the kids aren't exactly vegetable fans when it comes to eating dinner.

There are other cooperative games that my family enjoys but not as much as Harvest Time.

Harvest Time Game

Harvest Time

Family Pastimes

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Popular Preschool Cooperative Board Games

My family hasn't tried these cooperative board games. But they are very popular with other families and are age-appropriate for preschool kids.


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Secret Door is my favorite cooperative board game. It's like the classic memory card games. But this game also has the aim of finding out what's behind a secret door before time runs out.

There's no reading needed to play this game. It's all picture matching. So it's fine for preschoolers if they are playing with a grown up or an older child. The game rules are cooperative too. This means players can help each other remember where the cards they need are. The aim is to guess what's behind the secret door in time, not to collect more cards than other players.