Tell the child: 'Make 5 lists of your favorites. A different category for each.' Suggest categories: favorite foods, favorite places you've been, favorite memories, favorite sounds, favorite things about your best friend. Self-referential content is consistently the most engaging content for children. They are the world's foremost expert on themselves. Works lying down. Zero setup. The lists often become the basis for conversations days later.
What you need
- Paper
- Pencil
How to do it
- 1Say: "Make five lists of your favorites — a different category for each one."
- 2Suggest five starting points: foods, places you've been, memories, sounds, things about your best friend.
- 3Hand paper and pencil. Leave. They are the world's foremost expert on themselves.
Variations
- If they freeze on categories: start your own list out loud and get it a little wrong on purpose — "my favorite food is... broccoli?" — until they jump in to set you straight.
- How it ends: don't call time — say "stick this on the fridge, we'll add to it tomorrow" so the list stays open instead of finishing as a task.
💡 Parent tip
Suggest unusual categories: 'favorite sounds', 'favorite smells', 'favorite things that happen in autumn'. These push the child into territory they haven't mapped before.
What your child develops
- Self-knowledge — articulating preferences across multiple domains builds a clearer self-concept
- Comparative evaluation — selecting favorites requires holding multiple options in mind and judging between them
More for “Stuck inside”
See allThe World Record Attempts
Five at-home world record challenges. The child attempts each, records the result, and tries to beat it.
Tower and Topple
Stack it up, knock it down, and do it again - the oldest game in the world still works.
Bubble Wrap Stomp
A sheet of bubble wrap on the floor, and every step becomes a tiny satisfying explosion underfoot.