As a parent, how did you start weaving learning into play? Win a £200 voucher

[EllieSmumsnet]

We all know play is such an important part of childhood, but it can also be a brilliant way to build in early learning. From counting blocks, to spotting colours in everyday objects, or even turning a walk to the park into a mini science adventure, there are so many ways to bring learning into play without it feeling like “work.”

How did you first start weaving learning into play with your child? Did you have any go-to games, toys, or activities that made it fun and easy to introduce learning?

Did you find certain toys helped with this too, for example ones that encouraged problem-solving, numbers, letters or imaginative play?

• Post your advice and go to play and learn tips and toy recommendations below in the thread below to be entered into a prize draw.
• One lucky MNer will win a £200 VEX voucher for a store of their choice.
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Thanks and good luck with the prize draw!

MNHQ

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When we are pretending to cook, I’ll ask questions like ‘How many apples do we need ? What colours are they, we count them, and add up small amounts, two plus one is three learning simply and remembering always, and knowing when the questions get too difficult or they are tired of the session.

When we are outside, picking up leaves or rocks and counting them,
Instead of just moving along, you pause and say, what colour is it, how far did it fall, and if we find a crunchy one, feel touch and listen to it.
In the autumn collect and count conkers we find.

Numbers on passing buses, colours we saw, how many red cars etc.
We had alphabet letters to stick to the tiles in the bath.
When we were reading, what could we see in the pictures.

I've been talking to my children about everything we see, how it works, how it's spelled, what you use it for etc since they were toddlers. Becomes second nature. Encourage reading and read to them from weeks old. Never resist an opportunity to count or spell.

Being engaged with their everyday activities and what they see around them, counting things with them, looking at books with animals and asking what animal is this, make the noise, singing old Macdonald.
Watching out of the window, colours of cars, birds in the garden, what species is that, sitting in the garden watching the birds coming back to the bird house in the garden, adding to the nest, waiting for the sound of the chicks, and watching and talking about the frantic feeding of the chicks and listening to their cheeps as they are being fed - a child learning and being engaged is just the BEST thing.

Play is learning. They’re the same thing.

Talking is the connection between play and learning. Out on a walk, chat about what you see, count the birds, talk about the changing seasons. Sharing stories, talk about the characters and plot. Cooking, talk about measures and ingredients. It shouldn't have to be forced or planned.

All the time! From singing to/with them , to telling stories, to spotting the red car / yellow flower when out walking. One of the best toys my DC's had was the Tomy Box of Blocks. We used to spend hours playing with that. We still have it and play it with our dgcs. One of the best toys ever.

Absolutely everything is a learning curve - counting the steps up stairs, counting birds, singing songs, remembering songs, sharing ,colours, fruit - heavy and light, density etc, sounding out words, colours of cars, big cars little cars - baking absolutely everything - even walking you can make up a story as you go, feelings talking about things that have happened and how other people might have felt at that time - we used to play a game called ‘alien’ my children would be telling me something and I’d say pretend I’m an alien and they’d have to describe it and explain it exactly.
when you have a lovely little fresh mind to
influence, all aspects of learning become like little diamonds of information.
i just love watching little minds develop and begin to understand.

Read this as teaching kids how to weave

😂

Counting everything. Can you guess how many steps to the car. Can you guess how many blue cars we will pass and how many red ones. Really works and a great distraction on car journeys

Just everything around daily life, pointing out things, asking questions, counting out when playing, cooking, walking and jumping, we mainly use books and sit together and point to the pictures, asking what it is, what colour it is, how does it smell, have we seen one. Little minds are just lovely to fill with questions and answers.

We count things, and spend time outdoors in wellies and coats looking at trees, leafs, look at cars, the colour, etc, books are something we have a lot of and pointing out animals, planets, towns and countries in maps, and when I feel that they are not in the move and they want to chill and not engage we just watch tv or I will read and not ask questions just to enjoy.

Play is learning.
The main thing I did with DC was talk to them, observe our surroundings, talk about things, go on adventures and talk, go to the supermarket and talk.

I used to play games in the car with my children when they were young and now with my grandchildren. For example, we would go through the alphabet and see if we could spot something beginning with A, then B, then C etc. So for example they might see Asda, then brick wall, then a caravan.

When they were slightly older and could read letters, we changed it to looking out for printed words beginning with those letters. So for example a road sign saying 'accident' a sign saying 'bus stop' another sign saying 'car park'.

Not only did it help their learning, but it also stopped them being bored on longer journeys.

When we go for outdoor play, they're climbing, collecting leaves, building with sticks, or pretending to be explorers, my DC;s are learning about nature, problem-solving, and themselves—without even realising it. Autumn is the best season to do this with the dramatically changing environment, catching falling leaves, and learning from a young age about seasons, change, feelings touch, smells and our planet.

Definitely stories and books, reading the same ones over again, learning by asking pointing, looking at pictures, scrap books were also important, bringing things home, leafs from trees, with different colours and varieties, tickets from then cinema and holidays, and counting everything were we went.

I like making learning out of every day life. Like counting cars when we are out. Crafting and making cards for birthdays and getting the children involved in creating and making food dishes with me. This summer we've enjoyed planting sun flowers and having fun looking at things growing. I like making the world interesting for them. But we love games and puzzles and books when the weather is bad.

Asking them to weigh things on the scale for baking and fetch specific number of things, like 3 eggs.

My son LOVED trains (starting with Thomas of course!) - this was great for learning colours & counting. We spent hours playing with trains, counting the carriages, sorting them into colours, reading out the numbers & putting them in order. I remember him having a long train puzzle which he loved doing - you had to put the carriage in number order & he was so proud of himself when he did it independently for the first time!
Books were also great - especially when you're shattered - just talking about what's going on in the pictures & giving him little tasks..
'Can you find the blue car?'
'Can you count how many mice are in the picture?', etc.
Great memories - he's a teenager now so very little interest in spending time with me anymore! :)

Going for walks and identifying trees, birds and wildlife.
We almost never went up or down any steps without counting them. counted toy cars, balls and dinosaurs. Some of them would have to go and rescue something or lie down for a nap, how many are left?
I encouraged my dc to notice the seasons and what changes are occurring every time we went to the park or for a walk.
We had a magnifying glass which we would take so the could look closely at flowers and insects.
Stacking cups were a favourite. If I was playing with dc, we would count them, identify the colours. By themselves, dc would stack them, roll them, notice how they moved, tried to fit various things in them, fill them with cars and stones.
They were also good in the bath for water playing and filling one from the other. Lots of independent learning going on there.

We do a lot of counting in every day life eg steps, cats, peas, basically anything around

Lots of ways, the latest is dinosaurs, they are really into dinosaurs, we play with them, count their steps, role play as mummy and baby dinosaur, to ask questions, and we have a sandpit to bury dinosaur skeletons and put them back together again - and modelling clay to help with motor skills making dinosaurs.

I have lots of examples in our day to day activities, water play in the bath, reading books, being outdoors and counting steps, trees, collecting leaves and feeling them from the crunchy ones to the colourful red and yellow ones. we also have a bird feeder and we have a book to identify which species of birds come to visit.

Lots of songs with actions some whilst watching the tv, lots of books and sorting toys.