Play & Activities

A walk with a small child is not transport. Here are ten things to do on the way that turn twenty minutes outdoors into the best part of the day.

Children who have words for feelings use them instead of screaming. These twelve activities build the vocabulary and the calming skills, in calm moments.

Twelve tricks that need nothing you do not already own, explained properly — the method, the patter and the mistake that gives each one away.

Games where nobody loses teach the things competitive games do not: negotiating, sharing a goal, and noticing what someone else needs.

Twenty-five activities, almost none of which need anything bought. The kitchen and the recycling bin between them make a better learning shelf than most toy shops.

Thirty-five things to do with a four-year-old, grouped by what each one is actually building, and almost all using what is already in the house.

Five-year-olds can do far more than they are usually given — real cooking, real games with rules, real projects that take two days.

Monsoon week, no school, and a flat. Here are 45 things that work, sorted by how much energy the child has and how much you have.

Fifty stories short enough to read at bedtime without anyone falling asleep mid-sentence, each with the moral at the end. Most are India's own.

The joke a six-year-old finds hysterical is not the one a ten-year-old will tolerate. Here are 99, sorted by age, all of them clean.

Fine-motor skill is built with dal, tongs and old bangles long before it needs a pencil. The kitchen is better stocked for this than any toy shop.

None of this needs equipment. Floor space, a few household objects, and the willingness to let a child struggle a little are the whole method.

Most children who 'never listen' are being given instructions they cannot hold in their head. Fix the instruction first, then play the games.

Three hours of movement a day is the guideline for a preschooler. Most Indian urban children get a fraction of it, and it shows up as sleep and behaviour problems.

The best-evidenced toys are the boring-looking ones. A set of blocks does more for a child than almost anything with a battery in it.

Small flat, no garden, monsoon outside, and a bored child. Here are the games that work — most of them using what is already in the kitchen.

Rakhi is the festival small children can genuinely take part in — because the main activity is making something and tying it on someone.

Cooking teaches maths, sequencing, patience and a life skill — and children eat what they made, which is the part that surprises parents most.

Cutting builds exactly the hand strength and coordination writing needs — and it is one of the few skills where the progression really matters.

Singing to a baby does more for language development than any app, and it costs nothing. Here is why it works, and what to sing when you think you cannot sing.

Children do not learn to play with others in one step. There are six recognised stages, and knowing where your child is stops you worrying about the wrong thing.

Games that need no equipment, no app and no adult refereeing — and that half of Indian children no longer know how to play.

Blocks look like the simplest toy in the house and are the one with the most evidence behind them — for maths, language and spatial thinking.