Here is the expanding list of things you can do (and probably are doing) with your child that will make you the most popular parent on the planet. Your children's friends will love you too! They are important, cost nothing (or very little) and try to have achieved all of them by the time your child starts secondary school. Any later and you† might be in danger of embarrassing them!

* talk to your children and listen to what they have to say

* learn the names of the plants and animals around you

* go for a walk in a wooded area WHATEVER THE WEATHER

* grow cress

* bake a cake

* play 'Kim's Game'

* sing silly songs

* make mud pies

* cook together

* make perfume out of rose petals

* wear hats

* make a den out of the clothes dryer and blankets

* create something that floats

* play i-spy

* make a sand tray

* grow something

* sit together to eat

* laugh when they tell you a joke

* roll down a grassy hill

* walk in the rain

* make a bed for a toy out of a shoebox

* sew something

* mend something together

* bang on pots and pans with a wooden spoon

* play chase outside

* put your shoes on the wrong feet

* dance around the living room

* have a water fight

* build towers with rolled up newspaper

* ride bikes

* take a bus to somewhere new

* paint pictures

* make†some†playdough

* post letters to Father Christmas

* make a nest out of freshly cut grass

* make a fortune teller

* practice tying shoelaces

* turn off your phone when you are with your children