The rules to twenty classic games of childhood, kept by the company that has made them since 1795. Full rules, real history, what each game builds in a young brain, and how to adapt every one for under-5s.
Every game here has outlived empires, fashions and several generations of technology that was supposed to replace it. They survived because they work: a fair contest, a clear goal, a reason to sit with people you love. Jaques of London invented croquet, created Happy Families, and put many of the others into Britain's parlours and gardens in the first place. These are the rules as we would teach them to a grandchild: settled, simple, and honest about the bits families argue over.
Each guide gives you the game at a glance, the full rules, the genuine history, the developmental case, and the adaptations that make it work with very small players.
The garden rules, the roquet explained at last, and the game as written by the company that invented it in 1851.
Read the rules →The diamond, the three rolls, the scoring: the easiest first game a 2 year old can genuinely join.
Read the rules →Ring toss done properly: distances, ringers and garden scoring.
Read the rules →Garden petanque: pointing, shooting, the rule everyone forgets, and the sacred tape measure.
Read the rules →Cricket shrunk to fit a family: the freeze rule, the catches, the beach variant.
Read the rules →The full rules, the Moksha Patam morality-game history, and why pure luck is perfect for age 3.
Read the rules →Sixes to start, captures, the home run: the race game where first decisions arrive.
Read the rules →Setup, mandatory captures, crowning kings: the first true strategy game.
Read the rules →Three games in one box: the Block game, Fives for older players, and toppling runs for the youngest.
Read the rules →Two-minute games, the drawing strategy children discover for themselves, and the fork explained.
Read the rules →Squidgers, pots and the squop: the Victorian craze that is secretly elite fine motor training.
Read the rules →Mr Bun the Baker and company: the rules of the card game Jaques created.
Read the rules →The fastest game in the nursery: calls, disputes, and why NOT shouting is half the skill.
Read the rules →Pelmanism by its Sunday name: the memory game small children win fairly against adults.
Read the rules →Spillikins: one stick at a time, nothing else moves, and a tiny ethics gym for the honour system.
Read the rules →Ring Taw, keepsies and the lingo: the playground game found in ancient sites worldwide.
Read the rules →The 1 to 8 grid, the pebble, the faults: serious balance work disguised as chalk.
Read the rules →Threading, strikes, one-ers and two-ers, and the great hardening debates settled honestly.
Read the rules →Steps, creeping and DINNER TIME: embodied counting plus delicious fear in a safe container.
Read the rules →The count, the call, Forty-Forty and Sardines: developmental dynamite that costs nothing.
Read the rules →Britain's oldest toy maker. Every toy open-ended, wooden, and built for exactly the kind of play the research recommends.