40 min
Six Panel Comic
Fold a page into six boxes and tell a whole story inside them.
🔡
Invent a Secret Language
Ten words, one code, and a conversation nobody else can follow.
A slow, absorbing project for older children that costs nothing and keeps going for days.
Ce qu’il vous faut
- paper
- pen
Comment faire
- Choose ten words you use constantly: yes, no, hungry, boring, mum, home.
- Invent a new word for each and write the dictionary down.
- Agree one rule that applies to all of them, such as every word ends in an o sound.
- Use only the new words for the next ten minutes.
- Add five words a day and see how far you get.
Pourquoi c’est bon pour eux
Inventing a consistent rule and then applying it is, in miniature, exactly what grammar is. Children who find grammar lessons meaningless often grasp the idea immediately when it is their own system being broken.
Adapter selon l’âge
6 to 7 yearsFive words, and make them silly rather than systematic.
11 to 12 yearsAdd a writing system with its own symbols.
Sécurité
None needed.
Astuce rangement
Keep the dictionary somewhere findable.
Dans le même esprit
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Paper Fortune Teller
One sheet of paper, eight folds, and endless silly predictions.
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Three Word Story
You give three random words. They build a story around them.
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Twenty Questions
One of you thinks of something. The other has twenty yes-or-no questions.
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Rhyming Chain
Cat, hat, mat, flat. Keep going until you run out.
60 min
Invent a Board Game
They design the board, write the rules, and then make you play it.