Cylinders, free to play here

How it works

The cylinders are all different widths and so are the holes. A child picks one up, drags it over the board and lets go. Over the right hole it drops in with a soft sound; anywhere else it simply slides back to where it came from.

Nothing is scored, nothing is timed and there is no way to lose. When all five are in, the board clears and a fresh set appears in a new order.

What it is for

Matching a shape to the opening it fits is one of the first bits of visual reasoning a small child does, and it arrives somewhere around eighteen months. Here the only difference between the pieces is width, so a child has to compare sizes rather than colours — harder than it looks, and the actual point of the game.

The dragging is the other half of it. Picking something up, carrying it on purpose and letting go where you intended takes more coordination than adults remember.

Playing it with a toddler

Sit next to them rather than opposite. If a cylinder keeps sliding back, say which hole it belongs to out loud — "the fat one" — and let them do the moving. A child of this age will usually work through the widest ones first and leave the thinnest for last, which is a sensible strategy and worth not correcting.