Roll it down the ramp

2–3 years · Cognitive · 12 minutes

What you need

How to do it

Prop a tray against a cushion to make a ramp and gather a mix of objects: a ball, a toy car, a block, a spoon.

Let your child send each one down and watch what happens. Say what you both see: 'the ball rolled, the block slid.'

Then raise the ramp higher and try the same objects again. Ask what changed before you say anything yourself.

Why it works

Varying one thing — the slope — while keeping the objects the same is the shape of a controlled comparison. At this age the child is not reasoning about it explicitly, but they are collecting the experience that later makes the reasoning possible.