Material shelf · small stacks of cards you make · 5 activities
Printed or Drawn Cards
Five activities that run on a handful of cards, each set drawn in about two minutes and then good for years in an envelope.
Card rather than paper. Paper curls, and a four year old cannot slide a curled card into position without knocking the others over. The back of a cereal box, an index card, a cut-up postcard or the blank side of an old birthday card all work. Eight by ten centimetres is the size worth cutting to: big enough that a whole set is readable at once across a table, small enough that five fit in a coat pocket.
Draw big and draw thick. A thick felt tip line reads from the other side of the table, and a fine pencil drawing disappears at arm's length, which turns the puzzle into working out what the picture is rather than what order it goes in. Draw one thing per card, filling the card. Small faces get held up close to the eyes, and then nobody can see the mirror they are supposed to be copying in.
Two of these want a matched pair rather than a single set. Two identical paint chip strips, one cut into squares and one kept whole, let a child check her own grading without asking anybody. Twelve time cards each want the thing that happens in this house at that time written underneath, because half past three means nothing and half past three, the school gate, does. And if drawing is not your thing, four photographs taken on a phone this morning of him doing the thing, printed small, beat any drawing: his own hands in the pictures make the order obvious.
Make them last. A strip of clear packing tape over the face survives months of handling, and an envelope or a mint tin keeps a set together. Five graded squares in a mint tin live in a coat pocket and turn a café table into the activity, which is rare on this site.
The five
Ordered by the age they suit best. Each line gives the setup time, which here is the drawing, and the play time you get back afterwards.
- Color Shade Grading Your child lays a handful of squares in a line, darkest at one end and palest at the other. 2 min · 5 to 10 min · household only
- Mirror Feelings Copycat Your child pulls the face on the card, sees it in the mirror next to yours, and hears you name the feeling that goes with it. 2 min · under 5 min · cards you draw
- Pattern Card Bead Lacing Your child looks at a row of beads drawn on a card and threads the same order onto a lace, one bead at a time. 2 min · 10 to 20 min · beads, a lace, a drawn card
- Story Sequence Cards Your child puts four or five cards into the order the thing actually happened, and then tells you the story they make. 2 min · 5 to 10 min · household only
- Clock Face and Hands Match Your child sets the hands on a paper clock to match a card, and the card says what happens at that time in his own day. 15 min, once · 10 to 20 min · household only
All five travel. If you are packing for a train or a waiting room, the travel shelf has them alongside everything else that fits in a bag.