Top 10 ways to keep kids engaged and learning at Home
Mission not so impossible
After 2 weeks of home learning, many children and adults are getting tired of the struggle.
Stressed and supportive teachers and parents have rallied together to share teaching and learning ideas via Facebook and Twitter.
Here are some of the best sources of support and inspiration that I’ve found so far, including a mixture of Kinaesthetic, Auditory, and Visual learning opportunities.
1. Grab some “Good ideas” from Michael Rosen
Michael Rosen has an extremely helpful book entitled “Good ideas”, which I turned to during the first Lockdown. It recognizes the way in which learning can be made relevant and exciting if we follow our children’s interests and go beyond the classroom and the worksheets. Luckily, it is available on Audible so you can listen while trying to catch up with all the household jobs that have been put on hold during home learning time!
2. Bored? Try Board games!
We just played Junior Scrabble with our son, which is a great way to boost vocabulary and spelling skills, as well as addition. The competitive element made it much more fun than producing a spelling list. Next, we’ll try the traditional scrabble as adding the word scores will make it even more competitive and educational.
Below is a link to another article with more board game suggestions.
3. Take it outside!
A change of scenery may bring a subject to life and make it more exciting.
Learning through Landscapes has a fabulous website on which you can search for free outdoor learning by title, age, and subject.
Hygge in the Early Years offers some gorgeous free ideas for winter learning, using natural objects and things at home. It also has resources for all the seasons and you can take part in their Wanderlust study with your children.
4. Leap into Action!
My sons are much more interested in times tables or spellings if they can do it while swinging on the swings outside, jumping around, playing tennis or ping-pong, being creative, or building lego.
Fun phonics has a huge range of resources for active learning including colour-coded ping pong balls with all of the phonics sounds printed on them and phonic-sound tiles which fit with Lego or Duplo. They also have tiles for building all the times tables up to 12.
Lego also has some online lesson plans for a whole host of subjects and year groups that involve Lego building.
5. Read around the subject.
Books can really bring a topic to life and make it more engaging.
Our favourite local children’s bookshop, The Chicken and Frog, is excellent at sourcing books on all kinds of topics and can now post their wonderful books to anywhere in the world. The Chicken and Frog also host online events and tuition.
Booktrust also offers lots of books online for children.
6. Living room Lessons
BBC Teach has launched a wide array of lessons for all key stages and subjects. BBC bitesize lives up to its name and provides bitesize information on practically every topic you need to learn about. The animations bring subjects to life and the quizzes are fun and rewarding.
7. Teachers on YouTube
During the first lockdown, I messaged my son’s favourite YouTuber to see if he might do some sessions on Maths, English, or even Computing for his fans! Funnily enough, he wasn't keen but luckily a whole host of teachers have recorded live lessons on YouTube to help home learners during Lockdown.
Help your Kids Maths — Daniel Lin
Daniel Lin offered loads of free live lessons and challenges for all key stages during the first Lockdown and they can all be found on YouTube. Daniel has also been offering low-cost weekend lessons since September
We all enjoy listening to Michael Rosen’s poems on his YouTube channel. He seems to have a poem or story about everything.
The Dad Lab channel has great ideas for scientific experiments and craft activities.
Ted-Ed
Connected to the world-famous ‘TED Talks’, this channel has a fantastic array of educational videos for children on a wide variety of subjects including history, riddles, nature, science, and the arts.
8. Console-ation
While we are at home, children are keen to play their favourite computer games and it gives them an opportunity to play virtually with their friends. Luckily, it does have some educational opportunities such as reading, developing visual-spatial skills, problem-solving, communicating, being creative, playing imaginatively, and using language to describe their characters and what happens to them.
https://www.mrsmactivity.co.uk/ has some resources for recording news from their latest games of Minecraft and some Reading Comprehensions on their favourite games. Perhaps your child could be persuaded to write reports, stories, or a blog about their gaming experiences and best moments.
The Museum of London has recreated the Great Fire of London in Minecraft and there is a link below to 50 games that homeschoolers love.
9. App-iness
The boys love playing games on Teach your Monster how to read, Poio, Khan Academy, and Cbeebies apps. They are having fun and learning a lot at the same time. I’ve been perfecting my Italian skills with DuoLingo.
10. Virtual Teaching Assistants and audio stories
You can download the Alexa and Google apps on a phone or tablet, or access Alexa or Google via a purchased device.
Children can ask “Alexa” or ‘Hey Google” all sorts of questions to support their learning. Below are links to all kinds of educational games and activities that kids can do with Alexa or Google.
Audible is offering free audio stories for children during the lockdown. You can also sign up for a free monthly trial.
What has inspired your home learners? Have you found any surprising new ways to motivate your children?
Please send me your ideas!
