Age guide: 3 to 9 years. Most games work with a single child and a grown-up.
Rulers are useful, but children can learn a lot about size, weight and position before they ever pick one up. These seven games use bodies, string, kitchen scales and a few toy cars. They build on starting measuring with what you have with some new experiments.
1. Is your arm span the same as your height?
Time: 15 minutes. You need: string, pencils or shoes, paper.
Ask your child what they think: is the distance from fingertip to fingertip (with arms out) the same as their height? Write down their guess. Pretend you have lost the ruler. What could you use instead? Let them try string, pencils or shoes. Keep track of what did not work. Then compare the results and see if the guess was right. Try it on a parent, or a doll.
2. Footprint rulers
Time: 15 minutes. You need: paper footprints of different animals cut out to real size, and paper to chart.
Ask your child to measure the length of a room with an animal footprint, laying one down after another. Before they start, predict which print will give the highest number, and which the lowest. Try several prints and chart the numbers. Why does a bigger foot give a smaller number?
3. Body ruler hunt
Time: 10 minutes. You need: a room.
Call a measurement: “Find something as long as your foot!” “Something as wide as your hand!” “Something as tall as you.” Your child finds an item and stands by it. Then flip it around: use one hand to measure a table. How many hands long is it? Let your child set a measuring challenge for you.
4. The heavy hunt
Time: 15 minutes. You need: kitchen scales and a few objects.
Split into two teams. Each team finds five things they think are heavy, but only things your child can lift safely. Bring them to the scales and weigh one at a time. Write down each weight. Which is the heaviest? Was the guess right? An adult can lift anything too heavy.
5. Close, far, behind
Time: 5 to 10 minutes. You need: a circle of players.
Stand in the middle. Call “near!” and everyone squishes close. Call “far!” and they spread out. Add “behind”, “in front”, “next to.” Try moving by skipping, hopping or tiptoeing.
6. A map with roadblocks
Time: 15 to 20 minutes. You need: a play mat or a hand-drawn map, toy cars or figures, and some roadblocks such as a toy truck.
Draw a simple map of your street, the shops and the park. Put a roadblock somewhere. Your child drives a car from home to a place and has to find a way round the problem. Prompt with words like over, under, around and through. They may invent a car that flies. Welcome it and ask them how they would explain the route with words.
7. Where is it?
Time: 5 minutes. You need: a room.
Pick something you can see and give a clue about where it is: “It is on top of the shelf.” Your child asks one question, like “Is it next to the book?” and then makes one guess. The one who guesses chooses the next object.
Keep it practical
Use words like longer, shorter, heavier and lighter in daily life. A child who has measured their own foot has a good reason to ask how big the shoe is.
