For children aged 3 to 6, and the grown-up beside them
Ten good minutes with your child, already planned.
Picture puzzles and off-screen games, each with a short script for you: how to set it up, what to ask, and what to say when they get stuck. Nothing to prepare, nothing to buy, and it is free.
Or create a free account for the grown-up half of every card.
Why do it together
Not another app to hand over. Something to do side by side.
The talking is the point.
A puzzle on its own is a puzzle. A puzzle with a grown-up asking "how do you know?" is a conversation, and every card is written to start one. You get the opening line, the question, and what to try when it stalls.
Every card says what it is for.
Comparing, finding the rule, seeing it someone else's way: each card names what your child is practising, in plain words, and why it is worth it at this age. No promises of a cleverer child. Honest practice at things worth practising.
Nothing to win.
No points, no streaks, no badges, and the site never says whether an answer was right. You do. That makes it a poor thing to leave a child alone with, which is exactly what it is meant to be.
How it works
Small enough for a weeknight.
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1
Tell us their age.
We start them at the right level. At the end of every set you can say it was too easy or too hard, and the next one moves.
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2
Sit down with a set.
A few cards of one kind, about five to ten minutes. Most children need two or three cards to get the hang of a game, and then they want more.
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3
Stop when they have had enough.
There is nothing to finish and nothing to lose. Next time it picks something they have not done for a while.
The simple-looking ones are often the serious ones
The Crayon Tin
A biscuit tin with crayons in it, and one question: what will somebody who has not looked think is inside? It looks like nothing. Here is what the card says it is for:
Other minds: knowing someone can believe something untrue. It usually clicks around four.
Every card shows that line to everyone, so you can judge it by what it does rather than how it looks. 37 of them are games for away from the screen, mostly played with things already in the house.
See The Crayon TinFree, and staying free.
Every card on the site is open to look at. A free account adds the parts you need when you are actually sitting with them. There is nothing to pay for, now or later.
- The grown-up half of all 327 cards: set up, what to ask, what to say if they are stuck, where to go next
- A path for each child that suggests what to do next, so nobody is deciding in the kitchen
- Printing, for the car, the café and the waiting room
- Saving the ones that landed, to come back to
Questions parents ask
Isn't this just more screen time?
It is a screen the two of you look at and talk over, which is a different thing from a tablet handed over to buy some quiet. Any card can be printed, and the games for away from the screen do not use one at all.
What ages is it for?
Three to six. The cards come in three levels, and telling us their age starts them in the right one. Past six, most children will find even the top level easy, and we would rather say so here than after you have signed up.
Do I need to prepare anything?
No. The picture cards need nothing, and the script tells you what to say as you go. The off-screen games list what they need, and it is usually the sort of thing already in a kitchen drawer or a toy box.
What if they get it wrong?
Plenty of cards have no wrong answer. On the rest, the script tells you what to try instead of telling them the answer, and the site never marks anything, so the only judge in the room is you.
Got ten minutes and a child nearby?
New puzzles, and what actually worked
An occasional email when there are new cards, and the odd note about what landed with a real child and what did not. No account needed.