Play hide and seek
You will need:
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You can:
- Play hide and seek with your baby. Hide your face behind your hands, then take them away and say “peek-a-boo!”
 - Ask your child to hide their eyes while you hide a toy. Next, ask your child to hide the toy while you cover your eyes and then pretend to hunt for it
 - Encourage older toddlers to hide under their blanket, behind the curtain or under a table while you count and then look for and then find them
 - Choose a spot as a ‘home base’ where the seeker stands and counts while two or more children/adults hide. The seeker then goes and finds everyone who is hiding
 
You can also:
- Hide ‘treasures’ and go on a treasure hunt
 - Play ‘go home, stay home.’ Whoever is ‘it’ must try to catch everyone before they sneak back to ‘home base.’
 - Play ‘spotlight’ with your older children in the evening. The finder shines the torch on a player and they are ‘found’
 
Did you know:
Hide and seek can be a little scary for young children. You can help your child to understand the game by hiding a toy and finding it together. Build up slowly to independent play.
What your child is learning:
- To anticipate what comes next
 - How to wait and be patient
 - A sense of the unknown
 - When something or someone is hidden, they or it are not ‘lost’ forever; they will come back
 - Early maths concepts, such as under, behind, before, after and counting up to 10 or 20
 

