Listen to and join in with rhyming stories, like Julia Donaldson’s The Gruffalo. Play rhyming games, or sing an action rhyme. Make silly rhyming jokes. For example: What do you call a smelly elephant? A smellyphant! What do you call an elephant watching TV? A tellyphant!

Play snap or bingo with letters and sounds. Write letters on pieces of papers or cards, to create homemade flashcards. Make two for each letter. Use them to play snap. You could also create a bingo card with eight boxes – each one containing a letter. Put the flashcards into a pile, facing down and take it in turns to be the bingo caller. Play phonics fishing! Use homemade letter flashcards, add a paperclip to each, tie a magnet to some string and a stick and ask your child to ‘fish’ for a particular sound.

Play ‘Kim’s game’. Put a few items on a tray (for example, a crayon, an apple, a building brick, a toy car). Then look, cover, remember and check! Talk about, photograph or write out some ‘events’ from something you have done together – can your child remember the correct order? Go shopping – try to remember the list together!

Play games such as ‘Simon says’ – party games are often good ways to practice speaking, listening, and memory skills, without them even noticing! Listen to music and talk about the instruments being played – find pictures on the internet together.