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 Education

• Time for your kids to play that fun end-of-summer game called Hunt The School Stuff. (AttillaTheHan)
• Buy the school uniform you need now. Do NOT leave it till the last week of the school hols, when the shops will be full of harassed parents and moaning children - but no uniform at all. (ingles2)
• It does not matter how you learn. How you learn has nothing to do with how brilliant you are, how inventive you are, how creative you are. (HenryWinkler)
• To make school mornings go more smoothly, have a tomorrow drawer. The evening before get your dc to prepare their clothing and anything else they need to take and put it in the tomorrow drawer ready for the morning. (kslatts)
• If given the chance, try to offer to help out at school, it gives you a really good insight to your child's day and the way school works. (forkhandles)
• Count out loud as you go up and downstairs with your toddler. It's a great way to help them learn numbers and counting. (sockmonkey)
• Put alphabet stickers around the edge of your computer. Your children can gain valuable literacy skills while watching you Mumsnet. (FrannyandZooey)
• If your child always answers,'Fine' to the question,'How was your day at school?' try asking them to tell you what the best and worst bit of the day was, and you'll find out much more. (Cecilia)
• Conquer times tables by printing off (and there are plenty of free sites) dot-to-dot puzzles with the numbers going up in whatever number your child is learning. It puts a fun aspect into quite a tedious task. (Lotstodo)
• If your child is anxious about school or preschool etc, give them something of yours to keep in their pocket as a reminder you are not far away. (EHB)
• Cover a matchbox in pretty paper and when your child is learning to read, fill it with 10 words to learn and change them when they have learnt them. (poppyh)
• Empty your child's school bag into a homework drawer - it means you always know where they are and know what needs doing. (Dandi)
• Encourage a child in the early days of reading by putting subtitles on screen when they're watching children's TV. (purpleturtle)
• Let your older primary school child choose a lovely ring binder folder to keep homework in, it really helps to encourage them to want to do it! (Cam)
• To encourage your children to become writers get them involved in the writing of the shopping list or leaving a message for daddy etc - that way they can see writing has a purpose. (cazzybabs)
• To help learn spellings put cards with the words written on them on every stair step, and every time you go upstairs spell the word out loud. It works with times tables too. (Sheila37)
• When your local library sells off old stock, buy their children's reference books - they're ridiculously cheap, yet high quality. Great for reference or cut up for school projects. (Fauve)
• Don't be afraid to stray from the written text in your child's story books. Point out bits of picture to talk about. Little ones love to correct you if you 'tell the story wrong'. (sockmonkey)
• Help teach your kids to count by always counting stairs and steps together. (calebsmummy)
• Help your child learn the months of the year in a fun way by printing off each month with an image to match, eg a snowflake for January and a big red heart for February. (Thomcat)
• My son loves scribbling on post it notes, transforming them into tickets or price tags, so I always keep some packs handy. A fun, non-messy make believe game and writing practice all in one! (tigermoth)
• For children learning to read and write, buy an address book that they can use as a 'Spelling Book'. (secondhandrose)
• For children learning to read and write, buy an address book that they can use as a 'Spelling Book'. When they need to know the spelling of a word you can write it in book under the letter of the alphabet it begins with. (SecondhandRose)
• Encourage youngsters to read by reading everything: not just books but comics, letters, instruction manuals, catalogues and cereal packets. (Bon)
• Always ask open questions. Rather than asking Did you have a good day at school? Ask What did you do at school today? This gets your child to reveal their day and start a more involved conversation. (debkins)
• When out with your toddler, get them to practice colour recognition by naming the colour of passing cars. Works especially well with boys. (Sassy)
• Take a small snack and a drink for young children when you pick them up from school. They are usually hungry and thirsty when they come out of school and it stops them being grumpy! (Cam)
• If your child is learning to read, don't just stick to books, teach them to read everything - from magazines and comics to cereal packets, road signs and adverts. Variety always keeps them interested. (Bon)
• If your child is learning to read, try them with the Dr Seuss book, Hop on Pop. My son was not interested in the books he got from school, but loves reading this. (monty)
• Stick the letters of your child's name on the ceiling above their bed. When they go to bed they will commit the last thing they saw to memory much quicker. When they are older this is a good way to reinforce spellings. (Julianfromlakeland)
• If your child is learning to read but reluctant to sit down and read a book with you, try other reading matter - my son is happy to look at words in catalogues, cereal packets and comics for example. (Monty)
• I taught my son his colours by getting him to help me sort out the washing. He now insists this is one of his jobs. So even the most tedious chores can be used for learning and can become fun. (EllieMum)
• For pre-schoolers learning letters and words, start an alphabet scrapbook. Write a letter in the corner of each page (Aa, Bb) then cut out little pictures from anything (magazines, food labels, cards etc) and stick them on the relevant pages. (Mo2)
• If you want to improve your child's speech, then join the library. Reading books to your child is an excellent way of improving their speech, and different books every week will make it more interesting for them. (Rhubarb)
• If you want to improve your child's speech, then join the library. Reading books to your child is an excellent way of improving their speech, and different books every week will make it more interesting for them. (Rhubarb)
• Don't worry too much about your toddler's number and letter recognition and understanding unless they show a genine interest. School are now so obsessed with numeracy and literacy because the curriculum is becoming so narrow. You'll help your child a lot more if you teach them about the world around them or anything you have an interst in yourself. (joben)
• Never miss an opportunity to talk with your kids. Get them to describe, remember, count, invent etc. It's entertaining, easy, free and develops no end of skills at the same time as letting them know how important they are. This is one for any situation, car, shop, rain or shine. Obvious but easy to forget.
• Rather than keeping books in a box or out of reach on a shelf, give your child their own shelf at floor level. We built two little single-storey 'bookshelves' and my two year old loves being able to choose her own books. We even hope to train her one day to put the books away again!
• As soon as they can talk, start teaching your child their name and address. It makes them feel important and gives you some sense of security. (Cc)
• Make teaching road safety fun by baking traffic light biscuits or making them out of playdough and talking about what the different colours mean. (Holly)
• The best way to help a child to learn language is to talk about the word you wish them to learn and not just say the word itself. This contextual learing has been shown to increase vocabulary significantly.  (kaizen99)
• Give even small babies books to look at. We started our son with Mr men books at 12 weeks old & he has retained an interest in books - he's now 6 & can read everything. (mig)
• On your way to school or nursery, ask your child to read the door numbers and letters on street signs. Not only helps them with their numbers/letters but also forget to moan about the walk to/from school. (EmmaM)