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

We read a lot, watch documentaries and also do things practically. Like grow vegetables, make meals, and generally my children like learning if I make it fun or not.
My younger children love the tech toys though.

Yes to songs! My little one really responds to this at our pre school classes, and I try and copy it at home. She has even started making her own songs up as she goes about her day - great for expanding vocabulary. She also likes to be very hands on with things: eg ‘cooking’ alongside me with some bowls and random bits of dried stuff I have in the cupboard. This leads to counting, shape sorting etc.

BBC bitesize has great educational games for primary students.

Our son has ASD/SLD so everything becomes a learning opportunity - we just have to let him learn in his own way and not in conventional ways

We do a lot of baking- weighing, measuring, following the method and generally improving reading skills. In lockdown we also did lots of growing of plants and vegetables from seed.

We home educate my sister, so I do three days a week and my mum does three days. Learning has to be fun, we do a lot of arts and crafts, cooking and baking and incorporate maths etc, we do science experiments and spend a lot of time outside on the hunt for "special" things.
Absolutely loads of reading, books not necessarily for the age group but things she's interested in like volcanoes and rainforests. Oh and some YouTube and tech when I need 5 minutes peace!

Gardening (grow your own lettuce), days out (aquarium, farm, etc), cooking (weighing, measuring, etc), saving tick chart for pocket money (or choose to splurge!) - definitely a learning through doing approach here,

Give eye contact, use happy body language, answer questions, give praise and get on the floor with them to play.

Giving them their own vegetable patch and allowing them to grow from seed, starting them off on the windowsill and then teaching them how to plant and nurture, then cook/eat. This teaches them so much and it is such a lovely rewarding thing to do. Tomatoes, lettuce and broad beans are a good place to start.

Plenty of trips outside in the countryside to learn about nature and wildlife. Baking at home to teach about measuring and time. We love to play games too like bingo and cards which helps with maths

Read, read, read, from the earliest age. To them, with them, in front of them. A love of reading makes the whole universe accessible.

We love visits to all sorts of different places, then we build on that interest when we get home with practical activities such as making and cooking.

Songs, board games and puzzles are all great.

These are few Creative Ways To Make Learning Fun For Your Kids that I used during the lock down

Making a re-usable sight-word sandbox.
Catch a letter fishing game.
Make your own color sorter.
Snowflake counting wheel.
Learn shapes with colored Popsicle sticks.

Using every day things to help them with their learning.

I use the fridge magnets for the alphabets and numbers

I try to make learning fun by not pushing learning too much. She's naturally very inquisitive so I answer her many questions and ask her questions too, I want her to feel that it's always ok to ask questions

To teach my son phonics, numbers and alphabet, I use to put the shapped letters in jelly.
He used to love it, sensory play as wel as teaching him in a fun way.
He used to put them on a play mat and we would work it out together

I think learning through play is really important, I try to make it as fun as possible for DS and make sure I talk to him a lot. At his age (2) all the nursery rhymes, messy play, and drawing really make a difference.

Toy fell and crushed my child , very unhappy . x 🤬

My son has just started reception so we're learning phonics and how to read/write some key words. He's much more engaged if we pick up different writing media to learn on - yesterday we used the Aquadoodle mat and I wrote out lots of words. When I shouted them out he had to scrub them out with the paintbrush. We've used a magnetic drawing board with stylus, my phone drawing app, fridge magnets and of course pencil and paper this week.

To help my children learn I try to show then that I'm a learner too, they see me look things up in books and online, practise things a few times and improve and share my mistakes with them. I hope that I'm modelling the growth mentality that I'd like them to be able to apply to whatever it is they want to learn

I've had to dig deep this year (as we all have!!) to find new & exciting ways of introducing learning into our day.. although my son will sit & pay attention for reasonable periods in school - he's not interested in doing this at home - he wants to be active, doing, exploring! If I can sneak learning into a game, that's the most effective way!
We've loved playing Boggle this year - adapting it slightly for my son (7) - while DH & I play the traditional way (i.e the letters have to link) - my son just has to make words out of any letters visible on that turn - it's great for spelling & for writing & his competitive streak really comes out as he scribbles each word down furiously!!
There are some great online Maths games which he plays at school & then requests to play at home (woohoo!) & we also play a card game of Times Tables snap which has been really fun.
As Mary Poppins famously said.. 'find the fun & snap! the job (learning!) is a game!'

Smallest of opportunities seems to work. Snippets here and there have led to some of the best ideas from them too. So whether at the dinner table or out for a walk and this has also helped them with memory games and being aware of what's going on in their world.

Make learning fun, I always counted when going up and down stairs, my daughter could count to ten before she was 2 years old plus she knew all her shapes and colours Play-Doh is great for learning shapes and colours cutting square, circles and Triangles, Singing is a great way to learn them so singing whilst counting makes learning more fun.