For parents
Sorting Socks: Twelve Thinking Games With No Screen at All
Sorting, matching and spotting the odd one out are the roots of clear thinking, and your kitchen is full of the equipment. A dozen ideas.
Four of the games on StarSlate sit under a heading called Thinking. They are about sorting, matching, patterns and looking closely. None of them needs numbers or letters, and all of them practise skills that sit underneath both.
These are also the easiest skills to practise without a screen. Here are twelve ways, using things you already have.
Sorting
Sorting means deciding what belongs together. To do it, a child has to think about what things have in common, which is the beginning of classifying. It also teaches the words for whole groups, such as "animals", "clothes" and "tools", which are harder to learn than the names of single things.
1. The washing. Sort clean laundry by person, or by type. Pair the socks. This is real sorting with a real purpose, and many children love it.
2. The cutlery drawer. Knives, forks, spoons. The tray tells you whether you were right.
3. Two hoops. Lay two loops of string on the floor. Choose two groups, say "things that roll" and "things that do not". Sort a pile of toys.
4. Guess my rule. Sort some objects into two piles without saying how. Your child works out your rule. Then swap. This is much harder than sorting to a given rule, and far more interesting.
5. Sort it again. Take a set of buttons. Sort by colour. Then mix them up and sort by size. Then by number of holes. Seeing that the same things can be grouped in different ways is a big idea.
Our game Sort It is a small version of this. A picture appears and your child decides which of two labelled groups it belongs to, such as animals and food.
Odd one out
Spotting what does not belong is sorting turned round. It needs careful looking and a reason.
6. Three and one. Put out three spoons and a fork. "Which one is different?" Then make it harder: three red things and one blue, or three things that are the same except for size.
7. More than one answer. Put out an apple, a banana, an orange and a ball. Which is the odd one out? The ball, because you cannot eat it. Or the banana, because it is not round. Ask for the reason, and accept any that makes sense. This shows a child that thinking is about reasons, not just right answers.
Spot the Different One practises the looking part: a set of pictures that are all the same except one.
Shadows and outlines
Recognising something from its outline means ignoring colour and detail and attending to shape. It is the same kind of looking that tells a "b" from a "d".
8. Torch shadows. In a dim room, hold objects in front of a torch and look at the shadow on the wall. "What is it?" Turn the object and watch the shadow change.
9. Draw round it. Draw round some objects on paper: a key, a spoon, scissors, a cup. Mix up the objects and match each to its outline.
10. Feely bag. Put a few familiar things in a bag. Your child feels one without looking and says what it is. This is shape recognition by touch.
Shadow Match does this on screen, with a white silhouette and four pictures to choose from.
Looking closely
11. What is missing? Put five objects on a tray. Let your child look. Cover the tray and take one away. "What has gone?" Start with three objects for a young child.
12. What has changed? Stand in front of your child. Let them look at you carefully. Leave the room, change one thing, a rolled sleeve, a missing shoe, and come back. They love catching you out, and they love doing it to you even more.
Talk while you do it
The thinking is in the reasons. Whatever you are sorting or spotting, ask:
- "Why does that go there?"
- "How do you know?"
- "Could it go in the other pile?"
A child who says "because it has wheels" has done more than a child who put the car in the right place without a word. Do not worry if the reason is odd. Ask about it.
Let them be wrong
If your child puts a tomato with the vegetables, you do not need to explain botany. If they make a group you do not understand, ask what the rule is. There is often a perfectly good one that had not occurred to you.
Where the games come in
The real world is the better classroom for all of this. Objects can be picked up, turned over and moved from pile to pile.
What a couple of minutes of HTML5 games can add is a quick, tidy set of examples when you do not have a pile of buttons to hand: in a waiting room, on a train, or while the dinner is cooking. Each game on this site is eight questions and then it stops.
Play a round of Sort It. Then hand over the clean washing.