Mumsnet users share their tips for making learning fun for their children with VTech

[LucyBMumsnet]

This sponsored discussion is now closed. Thank you to everyone who shared their tips below

Helping your child learn about the world and everything in it is not always an easy task - from capturing their attention for more than 2 minutes, to finding the best way for them to remember the letters in their name, sometimes we parents have to come up with inventive ways to help our children learn. That’s why VTech’s Touch and Learn activity desk teaches children about letters, phonics, numbers, body parts, animals, music, shapes, colours (and more!), so to celebrate learning being both educational and fun, they would like to hear your tips on making learning a fun and enjoyable activity for your children.

Here’s what VTech has to say: “VTech is a world leader in age-appropriate and developmental stage-based electronic learning products for children. As a pioneer in learning toys, VTech develops high-quality, innovative educational products that enrich children's development, such as the Touch & Learn Activity Desk. This four-in-one desk features a writing pad, desk, blackboard and art station! Desk includes an interactive desktop, stylus and 4 double-sided touch pages filled with engaging content including letters, numbers, music, colours and much more. It also transforms from a desk into an easel and blackboard with plenty of storage space for art supplies to encourage play and discovery. The interactive LED display teaches letter and number stroke order. Also includes fun toy phone and music player featuring over 20 songs. Enjoy hours of fun as you create, discover and learn!”

So we are asking you, what are your ways of making learning fun for your children? Perhaps you have invented an all too catchy song to help them learn different numbers or maybe you’ve set up an at home science experiment which has left your kitchen looking a little worse for wear? Has a day out to the zoo, aquarium or museum helped your child learn more about the world? What trick has been most successful at getting your child to learn something new?

No matter how you make learning fun for your children, share your tips on this thread and you’ll be entered into a prize draw where one Mumsnetter will win a £100 voucher for a store of their choice (from a list).

Thanks!

MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs

As I discovered during lockdown, I'm not the best teacher. DC is pre school and while I won't be teaching him how to read and write I am consciously improving his awareness of letters/reading. In order to make this fun we look at car number plates. Its working well and he is recognising letters so well now
...though I do worry that the police might might catch us loitering!

Talking, singing, reading, games, letting her do things for herself even if it takes twice as long, repetition .
I credit an iPad app (pocket phonics) for getting her to read so quickly- she used to play it on long car journeys and it really tuned her ear into phonic sounds before she started school.

We like to do a lot of messy play with different textures & colours. My son loves water & bubbles the best so we make little fish tanks with his toys! He's only 15 months otherwise I'd let him have real fish but I imagine he would knock the tank over 🙈

We do nerf gun sums. put post it notes on the wall and as number sums they fire nerf gun at the correct answer.

My tips
1.Do thinks together. Reading, baking, gardening. They learn more when they are with their parents or someone they really love.
2.sing songs and play games about the subject you want to teach them.
3.learn through praticlical and tactical play. Letting them being about to actually touch things as well as using their hands helps memory. Ie animals: animals are delicate, this rabbit feels pain like us. They are soft touch them gently.

Looking for opportunities in EVERYTHING is a great way to learn - so from sorting the washing (colours of socks, matching pairs, counting) to reading road signs and door numbers. Keep your eyes open in nature and it's amazing what you can spot whether its unusual bugs in your own garden, interesting shapes of clouds, the signs of the seasons changing and so on. Creating a craft activity around learning is also a great way to reinforce learning. And lots of time for free play, imaginative play and messy play too! Treasure hunts around the house are fab with finding letters and numbers to make simple words.

I have found remembering children have limited attention spans helps when keeping children entertained! I always choose activities where children are actively involved best. For example cooking at home, planting in the garden. Even trips to the shops can be fun if they have the bag and scan the shopping!

Learning is about incorporating it into activities when they are young.

During lockdown with my 2/3 year old, we went old school, we had chalk outside on the floor in our Cul-de-sac drawing the sun and the planets in order away, doing hop scotch, numbers on the floor and throwing a stone (he painted his favourite colour) and seeing what number is land on, then 2 stones and adding them together, subtracting. Drawing portraits of ourselves, our house ,circle are face, square for house, triangle for roof, rectangle for chimney.

We love baking and cooking, teaching him what foods make what, how to prep it, cook it and serve it. Weighing ingredients is great for numbers and following instruction.

I love it all.

Walking to school we went through the weeks spellings on the way (I tried to make it fun and a bit light-hearted). This meant it was fresh in their minds when they got there. Each evening we read one chapter of a book - Enid Blyton, which they loved (because I did, and did funny voices) after a page of their school reading book. We all liked the routine of it and the facts and figures got absorbed, but in an easy, informal way.

Fart jokes are great for learning to read, DS finds it hilarious when we link the words he's trying to blend to farts.

Recite everyday happenings in story telling, by drawing or reenacting them with play doh.

Make learning fun and read books from an early age.

Practical ways of learning are good. So we do lots of activities such as baking, cooking, gardening, sports, art & craft, construction toys etc.
You can incorporate maths, English, science etc into these in a fun way.
We read loads too and make sure the books are funny & enjoyable.
Learning is definitely fun!

Talking to your child, reading with them, sharing experiences, these are all ideal learning experiences. Children learn from us. While electronic toys have their place, they don't replace interaction.

I seem to resort to bribery quite a lot! 'If you read me a book I'll let you play on the tablet' etc. I've found encouraging neat colouring in is a good way of trying to improve pen control without my boys realising. My youngest is in reception and has 'tricky words' (non phonetic) to learn so I stick a written one in the mantle piece for him to see and ask him what it says throughout the day. It seems to work really well. I'm hoping it might help my 7 year old with his spellings too.

We used to play rhyming games, making up nonsense words that rhymed with real words for ages on car journeys. Their year R teachers said it really showed.

And we play games with toy planes/Barbie's etc but I weave in them travelling around the world on holiday and we look up different places in the world to add detail to their adventures.

I think for children learning just 'is' fun. It doesn't need to be made to be fun because younger children actually absorb so much and are filled with curiosity. Follow their interests and learn along with them

My kids are brilliant and love interactive learning! I bought this for my son and daughter , my son not been able to speak fully yet he's just turned 2. My daughter been a wiz and learns everything in a second she mastered all the extra pieces to this table. I think it's brilliant for everything you get with it really helps a child learn what they would learn at school I think!

I think our approach is that teaching/learning (for us all) is something that happens all the time. So encourage curiousity: why are leaves that shape?, what keeps that aeroplane up in the sky?, what happens if you make bread without yeast and on and on. It's fun and also shows that adults also are still learning. There's also benefit of lots of games for problem-solving skills.

We love using songs and music to learn - from ABC to counting to planets. Reinforced by trips (virtual at the moment) to the Planetarium.

Reading together with my silly voices, going to museums, being outdoors growing things like beans and tomatoes, sunflowers, learning to cook, caring for animals, being kind, having manners.

Keep it simple - stacking cups, dominoes, cards, blocks, Lego, story stones, books, toy cars, an easel, seeds and compost, crayons and paper, beads and laces. Walking, chatting, singing.
Children want to learn, to play, to socialise. It doesn't need batteries or chargers or lots of money (unless it's coins to count/sort/stack!)
Sorry, V-tech, lol!

This time of year, with Autumn, is a great example of how we like to learn as a family. Going for a walk & discussing the colours, pointing out the trees are loosing their leaves & crunching leaves with our scooters and wellies. Learning where pumpkins come from by going to a farm to pick them, rather than buying in a supermarket this year & learning weather based songs (I hear thunder, rain rain go away) Matching the things that are going on around my children with simple home and family based activities is really key to both open the mind and learn in a fun family way

I let my daughter think she's teaching me 🤣
She is a bossy little so and so and works better if she thinks she's in charge 😂

We learn a lot from reading books, both fiction and non fiction. My children also like to ask our Google Home questions and watch YouTube videos on there. Pre COVID we used to like visiting museums, farms, sea life centres etc.

I bake simple things with my DS (things with just 3 or 4 ingredients) and then after we have done the recipe a few times, he makes the same thing with another adult who doesn't know the recipe so my DS has to tell them what goes in next, what gets mashed, stirred, poured etc. Being the teacher makes him think about the activity in a different way, and helps build confidence and empathy.