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

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I buy wipe clean books with markers which have colourful pictures on so it's more engaging, we are learning to tell the time with a wipe clean book and moveable hands which are a lot more fun to use.

We have a reward star chart to help encourage good learning

my youngest son love baking which is a great way to introduce sums & reading in recipes, but makes it fun too

Link learning to anything they like, whether it's using cats to add up in maths, writing their spellings in chalk on the patio, hunting for mini beasts for science, colouring in pizzas for fractions, or cooking for weighing and measuring. There are ways and means to learn anything!

We play a variety of different games, cards, scrabble and do lots of jigsaws (great themes) but we also get out to museums and art galleries and trips to the local petting farm. All are fun but lots can be learnt along the way.

I home educate my children, and we try to make learning as much fun as possible. We go down to the stream and use our nets to find things and look at them under the microscope. We have an ant kit which the children check and learn about the insects. We also like to go on different days outs and before we go we learn about where were going and then when we get back we re-enforce the learning. The kids pick up so much from the hands on experience. A single days activity can teach them what they would have spent a term learning in class. We also do things like gardening and planting seeds, so that the children can watch them grow.

I always turn it into a game, if he looks like he isn't enjoying it then he isn't learning anything

I find this quite easy as my lad is so competitive I just need to find a way for each task to make it a competition that he can repeat and try to better his score.

DD likes having a shopping list at the supermarket and then she likes to add it all up as she puts things into the trolley.

When she was little we used to count things as we passed them, or steps, or cars parked along the road.

I used songs to help my older children with spelling. it worked a treat . My youngest is 3 and im still trying to find ways to help her with forming her letters . but find shes more responsive if we make it a game to make certain letters look like animals

Treasure hunts are good, homemade ones, either out and about or in the house. Gives DS some control over his learning, burns off some energy as not sat at a table and can combine with a day out somewhere. Just requires a bit of preplanning, google maps and artistic flair

We find the bath alphabet letters fantastic for teaching our eldest to spell and our youngest what the letters are! They both get so much out of them!

We learn through song as it seems like fun rather than work. When I was trying to teach her basic maths I asked it in a way that appealed to her- food! If you have 2 sweets and I give you 2 more how many sweets have you got? It definitely worked!

We try and get outside and involved in nature to learn. Finding shapes in things we walk past or counting how many yellow flowers there are and things like that.

We use games and interactive books and for spelling we use magnetic letters to learn spell them

Making mess seems to work well with mine! We also do lots of singing and dancing. I make up silly songs about whatever I am trying to encourage them to learn. Mine are still young though so it will probably get harder when they are a bit older

Make it fun! Mine really struggled to learn colours, so we bought a funny book about different coloured underwear, which really helped!

Card games are great for teaching numbers, turn taking and planning ahead.

I spy is great for them thinking about letters and giving clues if required.

My kids like singing songs or making up little chants to remember things.

We play lots of boardgames and have done since my LG was very young. We share books and are always counting. If she doesn't want to do something (learning wise) we don't push it. When we go on journeys we play games and give her lots of paper to do what she wants on, she normally ends up writing about what we are doing.

One of my favourite 'learning' sessions with my DDs is when they take the lead, such as making up a game (role play) and they take the story where they want it to go. They often imagine we're all at school, and then they assign roles (I normally get the headteacher!) and then we play out scenarios. It's a great way for them to explore social interactions in a safe way, and work through any issues they may be having with other children at school. Anything that helps build their confidence and independence is fine by me!

I think the best way to help children learn is through interactive play, making it not only educational but fun, so that it sticks in your childs mind more than say reading from a book in a straightforward way.

Turn it into a game and get other children involved

We're learning colours at the moment so I'm relating them to what my little girl is interested in....Peppa pig!

I found books and rhymes helped my two year old talk.

We play "checking into a hotel" at bedtime. My daughter has autism so I find that this works really well for her communication. It also encourages her, in play, to settle at bedtime. I'm the receptionist & she's the guest. She chooses her "suite", pays for her suite (encouraging maths which she really struggles with). The "concierge" (daddy) takes her luggage upstairs & we settle down in our luxurious suite. We also do room service (cookies & milk). We play this most nights as she likes routine. It works brilliantly though! Helps her social communication, counting & spelling & encourages a good bedtime routine. It can be a bit grueling when you really don't fancy being a hotel receptionist after a long day at work, but you just do it, don't you??