Tell Mega Bloks the ways you make learning fun for your children - £300 voucher to be won NOW CLOSED

[JustineBMumsnet]

There’s no doubt that your children think playing is great fun, but they might not always feel quite the same about learning. Mega Bloks would like to hear about the games you play with your children that might sneakily teach them things they’ll need to know in the future, or the techniques you’ve developed to make learning fun for your children.

Here’s what Mega Bloks have to say: “Every parent wants what’s best for their children. They want to build them up, and so do we at Mega Bloks. The block scooping wagon helps your DC reach important physical milestones, such as developing balance, co-ordination and motor skills. In stacking tall towers, children learn to develop their creativity. In telling stories with characters, they’re exploring their imaginations. And in building make-believe worlds where they can be the hero, they’re also building up the confidence to be anything!”

See the Mega Bloks block scooping wagon in action below:

So, whether you pretend to be at the supermarket and teach them how to count change or get them to learn about road signs while playing with cars, share your ways of getting your child to enjoy learning, or to make playing educational for their future.

All those who post a comment below will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 Toys R Us voucher.

Thanks, and good luck with the prize draw!

MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs Apply

My son is pretty stubborn so you have to trick him into learning things - I incorporate counting and colours into the games that he wants to play and after several months of completely not engaging with counting he has suddenly started counting to 10 with minimal prompting! So I guess it must be sinking in.

we incorporate learning into every day life, the walk to school is an opportunity to point out numbers on buses, interesting things in nature and have a good chat

Lots of fun and lots of praise. Kids seem to learn best, when they don't seem to realise they are being taught!

All sorts of games give the opportunity to teach them something, such as sorting bricks into different colours, or counting pennies in a play shop.

My little boy was behind in writing and spelling, so we played hangman to help him. He soon began to correctly guess the missing letters to make the words up and his spelling improved through playing this game and having fun.

Generally playing games. Board games for fun and counting eg Ludo, Snakes and Ladders. Baking for counting, weighing and measuring and eting the results is the best part for them.

little and often

I found that the best way to teach my children the alphabet was to have the Fridge Phonics set and the kids learnt their letters with no effort whatsoever from the little toy singing about each letter when they put them in it. One of my girls knew her entire alphabet at 2 because of it. The others all knew theirs by 3 just by effortlessly playing with the letters while in the kitchen. We also played counting games with smarties as it helped motivate their interest. Lego and Megabloks are a big fave as they really spark the kids imagination and we had long discussions about their inventions and models.

Children can learn from all the things around them indoors and outside. Out walking recognising colours of cars, the numbers on buses. The names of trees and recognising birds.

We love to play and learn with these as it makes it so much fun

you have to make it fun kids learn more when not put under to much pressure.

A little tickle when he gets his reading wrong is always amusing!

I've found that just randomly throwing sums at them when using the blocks for example or asking them how to spell a word works well.

Make it fun and exciting using things you know they like incorporate characters they like from tv etc

I find leading by example works...I've always read books and from a very young age my kids have always seen that and copied me :-) You know what kids are like? Always wanting to copy :-) Also I would watch a lot of educational shows, particularly around animals....they love the cute animals so much they don't even realise its an educational show ;-)

at the moment, I don't really need to MAKE learning fun for my daughter, she is almost 2. She just learns through daily life in her own way. There isn't much need to force learning, or make it fun. As long as they are participating in an activity the enjoy - it doesn't have to be labelled learning at all, but its all happening!

Pretty much any activity where you're fully involved and interacting with your child will make learning fun for them.

We play name the animal beginning with.... and other things in the car and the kids love it

One thing that really worked for us was IXL (learning site). My boys actually used to beg to go on it (!), and really enjoyed getting past each stage.

If you're after the ultimate cheap learning hack for your child then this one is for you. I keep all my bottle caps and put numbers on the top of each one and then my children use them to test their sum knowledge. Its fun and beats doing sums on paper!

Field trips :) I really believe in going out and about. If you're teaching about animals take them to the zoo. if you're talking about science and nature take them to the woods. Practical applications too are fun.

Listen to what they want to do.

integrating toys and stories keeps it fun and more interesting.

Linking the topics to day to day life make things much more interesting for kids.

Playing alongside my child has really help to develop his language and imaginative play.

lots of fun reading :)