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One-on-one games

Most classroom games quietly assume a second child. In a private lesson there isn't one — so the teacher takes the seat, plays properly, and loses often enough to keep it interesting. Every game here has a two-player mode or works fine with you as the opponent.

The bonus of one-on-one is that you can follow the child: three rounds of the game they love beats five activities they tolerate.

Games in this collection

Interactive Game

Garden of Pairs

Every card is a seed packet in a walled garden. Turn one and it blooms; find its twin and the pair stays in flower, with a butterfly to prove it.

  • Ages 3–11

Interactive Game

Deck of Wonders

A magician's deck in a curtained study: brass filigree backs, a true 3D flip, and a horn that says the word out loud. Keep what you know; the rest returns.

  • Ages 3–11

Interactive Game

Campfire Circle

Question cards drawn over a crackling fire — 150 conversation starters, a card lit by the flames, and marshmallow sticks to mark whose turn it is.

  • Ages 4–11

Interactive Game

Painter's Attic

A secret word arrives on a painter's palette and you draw it on a real easel canvas — brush sounds, paint-blob colours and a skylight for a timer.

  • Ages 5–11

Interactive Game

Letter Forge

The letters come out of the fire scrambled. Strike them onto the anvil in order, and the word quenches in a hiss of steam.

  • Ages 5–11

Interactive Game

Dawn Sky Festival

Every letter hangs beneath its own hot-air balloon at sunrise. Guess the word before six balloons drift away, and the whole fleet lifts it into the sky.

  • Ages 5–11

Interactive Game

Coral Deep

A word is spoken and the fish swim past carrying pictures. Tap the one that matches, and a pearl drops into the shell.

  • Ages 3–11

Interactive Game

Story Lantern

The story is written on the panels of a paper lantern. Read it, hear any line again, then show what you understood.

  • Ages 5–10

Printable packs

Print & go

Pets

  • 16 words

Food

  • 20 words

Toys & fun

  • 16 words

Family

  • 16 words

Send as homework

Five joyful minutes at home: the child listens, taps the right picture and collects stars.

PetsToys & funFood

Read next

Questions teachers ask

Should I let the child win?

Not every time — a win that was never in doubt stops being fun by round three. Play honestly, be visibly delighted when you lose, and the game keeps its stakes.

How long should one game last in a 25-minute lesson?

Six to eight minutes, once. One game played twice teaches more than two games played once — the second round is where the child stops thinking about the rules and starts thinking in the words.

What if the child refuses to talk?

Give them the mouse. A child who is choosing the cards will narrate what they are doing long before they will answer a question about it — pointing comes first, words follow.

More collections

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