Make Learning FUN!

Last year I home schooled my eldest for two terms between house moves and schools and loved it! He improved considerably on writing, reading and that thirst children have for knowledge. My youngest now starts school this September and I’d like to give him a little head start. Mainly the ability to write letters and basic adding up etc and so I’m planning on using the best tool that anyone recommended to me for home education, a mobile whiteboard!

Moffat Girls Blog has
more amazing games to
play too!

 Not a large one pinned to wall but a little one that sits snuggly on their lap. They can then carry round if they desire and/or place on a table. One of the problems we had with Jack was his hand writing. Straight into reception and they wanted the children to learn joined up handwriting and boy was the pressure on. Straight in to pens and paper & Jacks book ended up being a serious of scribbling’s and crossing out which disheartened him dreadfully. So when I started home schooling everyone suggested a whiteboard. If you make a mistake it’s wiped out easily, no mess to keep distracting them. Within a week he was writing legibly!

They are just incredibly great for games to help build confidence and fun! Your children will have so much fun they won’t realise they’re learning!

Here’s just some of the games we play regularly even now in the evenings!

Hangman

Activity Time:  5 minutes +
Materials required: Whiteboard and marker
Skills practiced: Speaking and Vocabulary and Confidence.
Level: All levels

Method:
1. You choose a word from the dictionary and don’t tell the kids. This word can be one they know a lot (their name if young) weekly spelling etcs.
2. Children guess letters in the word. 
3. If the child guesses correctly, the parent writes the letter on the board. If the child guesses incorrectly, the parent draws a part of the hanging man.   

 
Naughts and Crosses 

Activity Time:  5 minutes +
Materials required: Whiteboard and marker
Skills practiced: Speaking and Vocabulary and Confidence.
Level: All levels

Method:
1. Draw a grid with nine boxes on the board.
2. Child is assigned to be X’s or O’s.   
3. Parent asks questions. Ie what comes after 1,3.. or if they’re older whats 2 times 5. If they answer correctly, the child draws an X or O. The child would then ask me a question (normally about star wars) and if I got it correct I was allowed to draw (needless to say I normally lost!)

Whiteboard scrabble 

Activity Time:  5 minutes +
Materials required: Whiteboard and marker
Skills practiced: Speaking and Vocabulary and Confidence.
Level: 5+

Method:
1. A child writes a word in the middle of the board. 
2. You write another word starting or ending with one of the letters on the board. One point is given for each letter in the word. If a word is longer than 6 letters, they get double points.    
3. The winner is the first person to get to a set number such as 50 depending on time. You can also set a category to practice a specific group, for example fruit, countries etc. 

Scribble Game 

Activity Time:  5 minutes +
Materials required: Whiteboard and marker
Skills practiced: Speaking and Confidence.
Level: 2+

Method:

1.       Your child scribbles on the board.

2.       You then have to make a picture out of it and they have to guess what it is.

We have so much fun with our boards that within a day Harry was starting to write his name. I would highly recommend these for all ages. It greatly reduces the stress of learning, it makes learning fun and they’re just great to doodle on too! Take a look at look at Viro Display as they have lovely kids fun whiteboards!