A BUREAU in French is a desk — that is the surprise on this sheet

Six pieces of furniture are drawn on the page — a bed, a table, a sofa, a cushion, a rocker and a desk — with the French word for each printed beside it. All six are hidden in the letter grid, across or down. Your child reads a word, searches the rows for that exact run of letters, and rings it when it turns up. The pictures do the translating.

Three of the words cost nothing to learn. TABLE, SOFA and ROCKER are written just as they are in English, so half the page is already readable before your child starts. BUREAU is the one that repays a moment's talk: in English it usually means an office or a chest of drawers, while in French it is the desk in the picture. Same letters, different piece of furniture.

It works well with sticky notes — print the sheet, then walk round a room labelling the real objects with the words your child has just circled. The nuisance on this page is LIT, the bed, at three letters. It hides inside almost anything and is routinely missed by children who are scanning the grid for something bigger. COUSSIN, at seven letters, gives the opposite experience and is generally spotted within a few seconds.