Making the word

This is a simple game for journeys that the youngest children can play. You think of a word or name (I often get the children to choose one of their own names or the name of someone they know). I also choose a word, with the same number of letters as the word or name they have chosen. We then have to look out of the window of the car or train to find words on signs, car registration plates, adverts, whatever, which include the letters of the name – and the letters must be found in the order of the letters of the name.

So let's say child A chooses "Michael", and I choose "rabbits" (another seven-letter word). "A" has to first find a sign that includes the letter M, then something with the letter I and so on. Meanwhile I'm looking for signs with first R, then A, B, and so on. First to complete the word is the winner. You can up the difficulty by only allowing first letters on signs and adverts, and by disallowing more than one letter from any one sign.

Sports day

I would never have guessed that this would work so well, but since my daughter was seven, she has organised us (the family plus my wife's parents plus guests) into an all-day sports day. We each have to choose a nickname – mine is Dynamo Nebbish. She makes and issues us with admission tickets, which she sells to us on the day. She draws up a set of sports, which include welly-throwing, egg-and-spoon race, boules, sprints, long-distance running, and paper-dart making and throwing. We have a scorer for each event, so by the end of the day there is an overall winner, who receives a cup and a medal – also made by my daughter. Careful falling over, bad legs and the like can guarantee that the youngest wins.

The exhibition

When you go for a walk, tell the children that the point this time will be to make an exhibition when you get back. So throughout the walk you're looking for treasures and interesting things to put in the exhibition. This could involve many hours of debate about what is "interesting" and what is a "treasure". You may need to invent criteria, such as: "Will it interest grandma?" Or you could make it alphabetical, and try to find things that all begin with a certain letter.

Impose an upper limit on the number of objects. Then when you come back, you lay everything out, and everyone must label their objects themselves. You may want to include a flower-press in this, either home-made – where you place grasses or flowers between sheets of paper and put these between two books at the bottom of a heavy pile of books – or a commercial version. You can also buy reasonably cheap "creature peepers" (trywildforms.co.uk). These are transparent boxes with built-in magnifying glasses so you can view little bugs from the top or the side. When it's all laid out, you invite visitors in.

Indoor ball games

These are best played with a scrunched-up ball of paper. Possible games are lobbing into wastepaper baskets; knocking small plastic figures off tables; "saves" using the sofa as the goal; cricket using a table tennis bat; and rounders with a ruler.

Dens and forts

Building these requires blankets, sheets, boxes and clothes horses. If you don't want the proper ones being used, keep a store of old ones. You also have to be prepared to leave the structures up for at least a day – and to play the part of the big bad wolf, the "enemy", the Romans, or any potential marauding force.

Don't finish the word

Players take it in turns to say a letter spelling a real word. Your aim is to avoid being the player who completes it. If you do, you've lost that round, and the winner starts the next one. If you think a player has said a letter that makes a word that doesn't exist, you can challenge. If the challenge fails (because there is a real word), you lose; if the challenge succeeds, the person who said that letter loses. So, as an example: Jack says "b", Mary says "a", Fred says "l", Jack says "i". Mary challenges Jack. Jack says "baling". Mary loses. Jack and Fred play: Jack says "c", Fred says "r", Jack says "i", Fred says "s", Jack says "i", Fred says "s" and concedes the game.

Adapted cricket

Cricket is great for families, so long as you don't play by the proper rules and adapt it so the youngest can be helped to stay doing the exciting stuff. This means bowling a slow underarm full toss; not bothering about six-ball overs; having a rule that the youngest has three "lives" and can't be out first ball; adults carefully dropping catches and/or spooning up catches when batting; playing the "in" rule – which is that you don't have to run to the opposite end and back so long as you shout "in!" when you arrive at the opposite end; no lbw; agreeing beforehand on how many innings will be played.

Water fights

My children insist that I include this one in the list. Need I say more?