Six sweet things, drawn in the margin and spelled out in the grid

The pictures run down the page — a brownie, a muffin, a pancake, a donut, a pie and a macaron — and each has its French name printed beside it. All six names are hidden in the grid. Your child matches picture to word, then reads across and down through the letters until the word shows itself and can be circled. No spelling out from scratch; the finding is the whole job.

Two of these are gifts. BROWNIE and MUFFIN are written exactly as they are in English, so a child who can read them in one language can read them in the other, and that early success buys patience for the rest. BEIGNET is the donut and TARTE the pie, so a child learns that a familiar picture can carry an unfamiliar name — the single most useful lesson in any new language.

This one suits a rainy afternoon, or the day before a trip to a French bakery, where several of these words are painted on the window. The awkward find is CRÊPE: only five letters, and the circumflex over the E can throw a child who is scanning for a plain one. Point out that the accent sits above the letter rather than replacing it, then let them look again.