Six fruits to find, and two that look alike at speed

MELA is the apple and MORA is the blackberry, and at four letters each, both starting with the same one, they are easily muddled when a child is scanning fast. That pair gives this sheet its character. The other four are ARANCIA the orange, PRUGNA the plum, POMPELMO the grapefruit and CLEMENTINA the clementine, all pictured beside the word list.

Fruit words earn their place early in a new language because they actually get used: a child can ask for one at breakfast the same day. The practice here is simple and honest — look at the picture, find the word, draw a ring round it — and it puts each written form in front of the child often enough for it to stop looking foreign. CLEMENTINA is the longest at ten letters.

Keep this one near the kitchen. Once the grid is done the words can be handed straight back over a fruit bowl, which is where they belong and where they will be repeated without effort. If your child still muddles MELA and MORA afterwards, that is expected; put both fruits on the table and let the difference be tasted rather than explained. Nothing here is timed and nothing is marked, so a half-finished grid can wait until tomorrow.