Tic Tac Toe for kids: what it teaches and how to make it fun
For many children, Tic Tac Toe is the first game where thinking ahead makes a difference. Here's how to teach it, what it helps with, and how to keep it fun.
Why it's a good first strategy game
Most early children's games are mostly luck: you roll a die or draw a card and see what happens. Tic Tac Toe is different. There's no luck at all, every game is short, and the whole game fits in view at once. When a child wins, it's because of a move they chose. That's a powerful first experience of strategy.
It's also practical. You can play it on paper, a whiteboard, in the sand, on a fogged-up window or on a phone in a waiting room. A game takes a minute, which suits short attention spans.
What children practise while they play
- Taking turns and following rules. The rules are simple enough to learn quickly and strict enough to matter.
- Recognising patterns. Rows, columns and diagonals: spotting three in a line is a visual pattern-matching exercise.
- Thinking ahead. "If I go here, where will you go?" is the beginning of planning. Blocking an opponent's line is often the first time a child thinks about someone else's plan, not just their own.
- Spatial awareness. Words like corner, middle, edge, across and diagonal get a concrete meaning.
- Winning and losing gracefully. With games this short, there's always another round. That makes it a gentle way to practise handling a loss.
When are children ready?
Every child is different. Many preschoolers can place marks and recognise a finished line with some help. Blocking an opponent's line usually comes later, and deliberately setting up a fork later still. Don't worry about ages. A better guide is whether the child can enjoy the game: if it frustrates them, put it away for a few months and try again.
How to teach it, step by step
- Start with the goal. Draw a board, put three Xs in a row and say, "This is a winning line." Show a row, a column and a diagonal.
- Play "find the win". Draw a board where the child has two in a row and ask where the winning square is. Kids love being right about this.
- Introduce blocking. Now give yourself two in a row and ask, "Where should you go so I can't win?"
- Play real games, out loud. Say your thinking as you move: "I'm going to block you here, because you had two." Children copy what they hear.
- Talk about the middle. Once they're blocking well, point out that the centre square is part of four lines, more than any other square.
Keeping it fun
An adult who knows the strategy will never lose to a child, and an adult who lets the child win every time isn't much fun either. Some ideas:
- Let them always go first. Going first is a real advantage.
- Play an easy opponent. A computer that plays at random, like the Easy level in the TicTacToe app, gives children lots of wins against something that genuinely isn't letting them win.
- Celebrate draws. Once children start blocking, games end in draws. Explain that a draw means they defended perfectly, which is what the best players do.
- Try Misère. In this variant, getting three in a row loses. Adults find it just as confusing as children, which evens things out. More ideas in Tic Tac Toe variants.
- Keep score across rounds. A best-of-five series lets a child lose a game and still win the match.
Playing on a phone or tablet
Paper is great, but a phone is often what's at hand. If you hand a device to a child, it's worth checking what the app does besides the game. TicTacToe was built to be safe to hand over: there are no ads, no accounts, no internet connection needed and no data collected. You can read the details in our privacy policy.
Two people can play on the same phone or iPad, passing it back and forth, or a child can play the computer on Easy, Medium or Hard as they improve. Sounds, haptics and the celebration confetti can all be switched off in Settings if you want a quieter game.
Where to go next
Children who've mastered Tic Tac Toe are often ready for games with more depth: four or five in a row on bigger boards, Ultimate Tic Tac Toe, and eventually classic strategy board games. For the grown-ups, how to win at Tic Tac Toe is a good refresher before your child starts beating you.