Simple game suggestions based on your child's age

• Place household objects around the baby, at a distance that lets them grab them on their own. Let them handle them, throw them, bang them together. Do it in front of them, naming the objects, their texture and/or their sound.

• Offer them tubs filled with water, along with containers to fill and empty, and textures to feel (use what you have at home: cooked pasta, dried legumes, soap suds, soil, etc.). Let them handle the objects however they like.
  
  

Suggested activities:

• Include them in chores such as sweeping, wiping surfaces, tidying up, etc. by pretending to be a house cleaner, or give them small roles in meal preparation (like mixing a cake batter or cutting certain foods with a safe utensil).

• Arrange various objects on a table, give them a bag and some scraps of paper or old cards (to make banknotes or bank cards), and go “shopping”.

• Hide objects and invite them to find them using simple clues.

• Set them up with notebooks, pencils, assorted papers and maybe even a laptop made out of cardboard so they can play pretend school or work. Use their interests to suggest roles to play. If you also have costumes to offer, some kids will love it!
  
  

The child from 6 to 12 years old

At this stage, children make big cognitive leaps and, since they go to school, they can consolidate many learnings. Children understand their environment much better when it's concrete. So anything more abstract is harder to grasp, especially for the youngest. For example, math and numbers are abstract, but if we put them in context with things they know (like drawings on a math exercise), it's easier. Children still like role-playing games, but they'll like them even more if the game is close to reality and “believable”.

Suggested activities:

• Offer to let them make a movie (if you have the necessary equipment) by
  guiding them through the different steps: writing the script, shooting the scenes, editing and watching the final result, or even writing a novel, laying it out and illustrating it.

• Suggest they go into business and create their own little company (cleaning, jewellery, artwork) and support their project by helping them create a logo, produce their creations and distribute them.

• Let them run a restaurant for the length of a meal by letting them create the menu, prepare the food and serve it.

• Put together a treasure hunt with a detailed map and riddles to solve and suggest they create one of their own in turn.

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