Shapes are all around and are a great thing to learn about with your little ones, try and find some different shaped boxes or tins to collect different shaped treasures.

Round biscuit tin: put in round objects that you find around the house:-

• Cookie cutter
• Coin
• CD
• Wheel from a toy car
• Plate

Triangular chocolate box (or fold a paper bag in half to make it triangular):-

• Plastic pizza slice
• Half a piece of paper folded to make a triangle
• Slice of watermelon made from a paper plate (simply colour the slice red, the edge green and add a few black dots as seeds)

Square cardboard box:-

• Little gift box
• Square cracker
• Cup coaster
• Little book

Rectangular lunch box:-

• Carton of juice
• Box of wax crayons
• Fruit snack bar
• Domino

We're delighted to announce the launch of our new app for iPhone, Shape Bugs, aimed at teaching preschool children to draw and recognise simple shapes.

If you trust your children with your iPhone or iPod Touch then let them choose a shape to draw.  They can select their favourite colour and must draw the shape as cleanly as possible - squares, rectangles and diamonds must be drawn with four straight lines, triangles with three straight lines and circles and ovals with one.  Don't take your finger off until the shape is complete!

If the shape is reconisable as the one you set out to draw, then you'll hear a cheer and a face will appear to make your Bug.  If the lines weren't drawn cleanly then you'll hear a comiserating 'Ohhh!' and can try again!

Download Shape Bugs from the Apple store, and have hours of fun...!

Shapes and colours are amongst the first concepts that babies learn and learning them helps to stimulate connections in the brain that will continue to serve your baby as they learn throughout their childhood.  Learning both shapes and colours with your baby can be fun for both of you.  Here's a fun idea on how to familiarise your baby with both.

Take two potatoes and cut them in half so that at least one of the cross sections makes a circle.  Now carve the other faces into a rectangle, square and triangle. You now have four large stampers!

Dip the face of the potatoes in finger paint and stamp different coloured shapes onto a large sheet of paper.  Practice the stamping and discuss each shape with your baby - count the sides on the shape and point your finger around each shape as you show them.  Start with a single colour and state the colour with each stamp: 'red circle', 'red square', 'red triangle', 'red rectangle'.  Wipe the paint off the face each time and then start on another colour.

When you have played with these for a bit, show the effect of mixing colours; demonstrate how two colours mixed together create a different colour.  Try mixing various combinations of colours to create a varied array.

Playing with shapes and colours will help to cement these concepts in your child's mind and start them on a learning path that will set them up well for school in a few years!

Shapes are everywhere, and are easier to learn if you practice with your little ones as often as you can. The kitchen is a great place to start. Name a shape and hunt around the kitchen to find things of that shape. A lid, a saucepan, an orange are all round shapes; a tile, door, a window might all be square or rectangles. Triangles are more challenging, but maybe you have triangular cookie cutters or there are triangular symbols or patterns on food packets? Allow your child to open cupboards you know are safe to explore and have fun searching! You could try it with food too: sliced cucumber, carrots, peas are all round! Its great to practice and you may even get to sort out some of your kitchen cupboards too!