Find the Soft Leaf

Four leaves, one obviously softer than the others. The child finds it. Then you do it again tomorrow.

It looks trivial and it is the beginning of discrimination by a single property, which underlies every sorting, classifying and categorising task a child will meet for the next fifteen years.

We use a velvet leaf plant for the soft one because it is unmistakable, with three ordinary leaves as contrast. If you cannot get one, the underside of a young banana leaf works.

The page has the leaf options, the presentation, and a progression to two soft leaves out of five once the first version is easy. It also notes what we got wrong, which was making the contrast too subtle at the start. Begin obvious. Toddlers need the success before they will accept the challenge.