Homes, Homes, Homes
Homes are different, and they're all homes: city, farm, river, outback, beach, and animal homes too.
How it plays
Homes on one side, places on the other. Your child taps a home, then taps where it belongs: an apartment in the city, a farmhouse on a farm, a houseboat on the river, an underground home in Coober Pedy, a beach shack by the sea. Animals' homes too: a wombat's burrow and a possum's tree hollow. Homes are different, and they're all homes.
What it's for
Homes are different, and they're all homes: city, farm, river, outback, beach, and animal homes too. There is no score to lose and no way to fail: a wrong move is met with a gentle nudge, and a level ends when it's done.
Away from the screen: Draw our home
About two minutes, with things most homes have.
- Your child draws your home: house, flat, unit, caravan, whatever it is.
- Add who lives there, and the pets.
- Talk about one other kind of home they've seen: Grandma's, a friend's.
- Ask: what makes a home a home?
Three questions to ask while they play
- What kind of home do we live in?
- Why do you think some people in Coober Pedy live underground?
- Where does a wombat sleep?
Play together
Things to say or ask
- A houseboat! It floats on the river.
- Every home is different, and they're all homes.
Taking turns on one device: One of you taps a home; the other finds where it belongs.
If they find it hard
Talk about each picture together before matching: “This is a boat you live on. Where would it go?”.
Every fact, and where it comes from
What Ruby Roo says in Homes, Homes, Homes was checked against the page it links to.
- Coober Pedy, an opal-mining town in outback South Australia, averages about 37 degrees on summer days, so many people live in 'dugouts' cut into the sandstone, which stay between about 19 and 25 degrees all year. (ABC News)
- Wombats are among the world's largest burrowing animals and spend about two thirds of their lives in their burrows. (Australian Museum)
- Common brushtail possums are nocturnal; by day they rest in a hollow log, branch or tree trunk, or any dark spot, even a house roof. (Australian Museum)
What it practises
- Noticing what's the same. Looking closely to find two that match.
EYLF 4.2 (Early Years Learning Framework V2.0) - Australian animals. What animals look like and where they live (My animal friends cards).
AC9SFU01 (Science, Foundation); AC9S1U01 (Science, Year 1)
The codes are from the Early Years Learning Framework V2.0 (for children from birth to five) and the Australian Curriculum v9 (Foundation to Year 2). Each links to the official wording. Every skill, and the games for it.
What it costs, and what we collect
Nothing, and nothing. There is no account, no advertising and no tracking of any kind. Which games have been played is remembered on your own device and is never sent anywhere. The full version is here, and it's short.
Where it lives
Homes, Homes, Homes is part of Our World. It works on a phone, a tablet or a classroom screen, and once it's been opened it keeps working with no signal at all.
Updated