The games childminders reach for again and again, and why developmental science says they are exactly right to do so.
Ask an experienced childminder what she pulls out when three children of different ages arrive at her door and the answer is almost never a tablet. It is almost always something wooden, something physical, something that has been making children laugh for generations: a set of skittles, a ring toss, a simple card game, a circle singing game played on the rug. These are the games that fill a morning without a single screen being switched on, and they do it not by accident but because they are extraordinarily well matched to the way children under five actually learn. The short answer is this: traditional games work across mixed ages, require no batteries, and deliver the language, motor, and social skills that developmental researchers consistently identify as the foundations of later learning.
The evidence behind that claim is substantial. Researchers Hirsh-Pasek and Golinkoff have spent decades documenting what they call "playful learning," showing that child-directed, hands-on play produces deeper cognitive engagement than passive screen time. Neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp identified PLAY as one of the brain's primary emotional systems, activated by physical, social, interactive games and driving the development of emotional regulation and social bonds. For the childminder juggling a two-year-old, a four-year-old, and a child just starting school, this is not abstract theory. It is the reason a set of skittles keeps everyone busy, happy, and learning for forty-five minutes without a single argument about whose turn it is on the iPad.
What the research says about screens versus play
The American Academy of Pediatrics advises avoiding digital media other than video-chatting for children under 18 months, and limiting screen use to one hour per day of high-quality programming for children aged two to five. Researchers including Christakis have linked rich, interactive, object-based play with stronger language development and more sustained attention. Traditional games sit squarely in that evidence-based sweet spot.
The games childminders return to share a handful of quiet virtues. They are easy to explain in thirty seconds. They have clear, visible goals: a ball hitting a pin, a ring landing on a post, a matching pair found face-up on the table. They allow children to participate at different levels simultaneously: the two-year-old can bowl from close range while the five-year-old steps back to a more challenging distance. Vygotsky called this kind of layered participation scaffolding, and the childminding setting is one of the most natural places it occurs, because older children instinctively model and guide younger ones without being asked. The older child is not bored; she is rehearsing competence and enjoying the social pleasure of being the expert.
Piaget's observations remind us that children under five are in the preoperational stage, learning through concrete objects and direct manipulation rather than abstract instruction. A game that can be touched, thrown, stacked, or sorted engages this mode of understanding in a way that a screen, however colourful, simply cannot replicate. The physical object provides resistance, weight, sound, and consequence: the skittle either falls or it does not.
Skittles and ring toss are among the most reliable tools in a childminder's repertoire, and for good reason. Both games require the child to regulate her body, plan a movement, execute it, and observe the result: a four-step loop that developmental researchers describe as the foundation of executive function. Adele Diamond has shown that executive function skills, including inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility, are among the strongest predictors of school readiness, more reliable than IQ scores alone.
Skittles in particular offers something that many games do not: repeated, low-stakes attempts. The child who knocks down only two pins on the first roll does not fail and wait. She retrieves the ball, adjusts her position, and tries again immediately. This cycle of attempt, observe, adjust is exactly the self-correcting feedback loop that Montessori educators have championed for over a century. For the childminder, skittles also offers a natural counting context: "You knocked down three. How many are still standing?" Language researchers Hart and Risley showed that the quantity and quality of language a child hears in her earliest years has a profound effect on vocabulary at school age. Counting, comparing, and narrating a game of skittles contributes directly to that conversational bank.
Explore Jaques London's collection of traditional skittles sets, crafted for nursery and home useSimple card games, matching games, and memory pairs are the workhorses of the tabletop session. A two-year-old can play a basic snap or colour-match game; the same deck can challenge a five-year-old with a larger grid or a rule about taking turns silently. Memory and matching games develop visual discrimination, short-term recall, and the critical social skill of waiting. Patricia Kuhl has demonstrated that even very young children are extraordinarily sensitive to social contingency: the rhythm of taking turns in conversation and in play. A card game externalises that rhythm, making it visible and predictable in a way that helps children with less developed impulse control to participate successfully.
For the childminder on a budget, a single well-chosen set of traditional games cards repays itself hundreds of times over. The game does not update, does not require a subscription, and does not emit blue light at nap time.
Browse Jaques London's traditional games, chosen by childminders, nurseries, and families since 1795Circle games, singing games, and movement activities give children what Sergio Pellis describes as social play: rule-governed physical interaction that builds the neural circuits underlying social competence. Childminders use games like duck-duck-goose, musical statues, or simple call-and-response songs not merely as a way to burn energy before lunch, but because these games teach children to read social cues, wait for a signal, and manage the mild frustration of being "out." Stuart Brown's research points to free, social, movement-based play as essential for the development of empathy and cooperation.
Why physical play matters for emotional regulation
Jaak Panksepp argued that the PLAY system in the brain is not a luxury but a biological need. When satisfied through active, social, physical games, it measurably reduces anxiety and improves a child's capacity to regulate strong emotions. Childminders who build movement games into their day are not filling time; they are tending to neurological development.
A childminder does not need a room full of equipment. Developmental psychologist Jeffrey Trawick-Smith, whose TIMPANI study observed hundreds of children at play, found that the toys most associated with high-quality play were open-ended, durable, and socially engaging. A set of wooden skittles, a ring toss, two or three card games, and a small selection of stacking and sorting toys cover the majority of developmental needs for children from eighteen months to five years. The key is quality over quantity: toys that survive being thrown, chewed, and loved by dozens of children across several years represent better value than a drawer full of disposable plastic novelties.
Jaques London has been making traditional games since 1795, supplying families, schools, and nurseries with equipment built to last generations. The same ethos that produced the world's first croquet sets and the Staunton chess set standard in 1849 applies to every skittles set and ring toss that leaves the workshop today: these are objects made to be played with, repeatedly, joyfully, and without a charging cable in sight.
A simple starter toolkit for childminders
Wooden skittles · a ring toss set · a colour-match or snap card game · a simple puzzle · a set of stacking rings. Five items. Dozens of games. Years of use. That is the formula experienced childminders return to, and it is well supported by the developmental literature.
For children under five, the research consistently favours hands-on, social, object-based play over screen-based activity, including apps marketed as educational. Hirsh-Pasek and Golinkoff found that many so-called educational apps offer only shallow engagement because they lack the social contingency, physical feedback, and open-ended problem-solving that drive genuine learning. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends limiting screens for under-fives and prioritising interactive play. Traditional games, by their nature, require a child to act upon the physical world and respond to other people, which is precisely the condition under which young brains learn most efficiently.
Two-year-olds are remarkably capable players when the game is well matched to their stage. A simple colour snap, a two-piece matching game, or a basic pairs game with large, clear pictures is entirely appropriate for a child of this age. Piaget's framework places two-year-olds in a period of rapid symbolic development: they are learning that a picture of a cat represents a real cat, and matching games exercise exactly this capacity. The social element, sitting across from another person, watching her face, waiting for a turn, is equally valuable. A childminder offering card games is not expecting a two-year-old to count cards; she is providing a rich, structured social experience at the table.
Both games develop gross motor coordination, hand-eye alignment, spatial awareness, and the executive function skills that Adele Diamond identifies as central to school readiness. Beyond the physical, they offer a natural counting and comparison context, supporting early mathematical language in the way Hart and Risley's research on conversational richness would predict. Crucially, they involve repeated attempts with immediate, visible feedback: the child sees what happened, adjusts her approach, and tries again. This self-correcting loop is one of the most powerful learning mechanisms available to a young child, and it operates entirely without adult instruction.
Yes, and the developmental literature suggests the mixed-age dynamic is itself a feature rather than a problem. Vygotsky's concept of the zone of proximal development explains why older children benefit from helping younger ones: teaching consolidates understanding and builds a sense of competence and social responsibility. For skittles, ring toss, and circle games, the solution is to adjust the physical challenge, closer distance for younger children and a smaller target zone for older ones, while keeping the social frame the same. Everyone is playing together, which is the point. The childminder's art lies in calibrating those small adjustments, and a well-chosen traditional game does much of that work by itself.
Britain's oldest toy maker. Every toy open-ended, wooden, and built for exactly the kind of play the research recommends.