Eight Ideas to Keep Learning Engaging at Home

Games! Games! Games!

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Studies have shown that students who played games as part of their regular curriculum were significantly more engaged, and outperformed their peers on both factual knowledge and depth of knowledge. Learning games happen often in the classroom but let's bring the learning games home. Children learn best when they're having fun. Here are eight fun ideas to keep your kiddos engaged during distance learning or anytime you want to bring learning fun to the house. Put away that paper/pencil activity and let's get engaged!

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Four Corners

The "Four Corners" activity is a fun activity that takes very little preparation. Before doing the activity, you will want to create four signs, each with a different response on it, depending on what you want to practice with your child. Post each response sign in one of the four corners in a room of your home. Then pose a question to your child.

For example, let's say you want your child to practice identifying short vowel sounds. I would create 4 signs, each with a different vowel and hang them around the living room. Then I would say a word for them to identify the vowel sound, like "bat". Instead of them just telling me it's a short a word, they would go to the corner that has the sign with "Short A" on it.

Children will love the challenge of seeing how many they can get right and you can use this activity for any subject matter and to practice with any age. Below are some Four Corner ideas I have used with my own children.

short vowels                       multiplication             sight words               geography
long vowels                        division                        parts of speech         historical figures
number recognition           subtraction                 text features              historical events
letter recognition               addition                       fractions                     definitions

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Beach Ball

I don't know any child who doesn't love to throw a ball around. Here is what you'll need: a beach ball and a permanent marker. That's it! To play, blow up the beach ball and use the marker to write questions/topics in each section of the ball. For example, my son needs to practice his sight words. I write different sight words in each section of the beach ball. We toss is back and forth and when he catches it, whichever word is facing him, he has to read the word to me. I also use this method to help him practice his math facts. This can be used with a variety of subject matter. Consider keeping score to add another level of competitiveness. 

*TIP: To re-use the beach ball, use nail polish remover to take the permanent marker off.

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Hoop it Up

For this activity all you need is a ball and a hoop (or laundry basket). Simply ask your child practice questions and for every one they get correct, they get to shoot a shot.  This game can be used with a variety of subject matter. 

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Go Long

​Grab a football and head outside. For every answer your child gets correct, they "go long" for a catch. Great fun for your child athletes! You can use this practice learning from various subjects.

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Swatter

All you need is a fly swatter and some flashcards. This is especially fun to practice sight words with younger kids. Tape the words to a wall or lay the words around the floor (if you don't want to put tape on the walls). Call out a sight word and your child has to smack the card with the swatter. Thwack!

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Caption It

Most kids I know have a favorite television show or a few... Put on their favorite show, turn OFF the volume and turn ON the captions. They will have to use picture clues and read to follow along with the show. This is great for fluency practice for beginning readers.

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real world Monopoly

This idea came from one of my parent colleagues after we all had to transition to distance learning. She used the monopoly money from the game and applied the Monopoly game idea to real life. She gave her children "jobs" (household chores) and they got paid in Monopoly money. They have to deposit their "money" into the pretend Bank of Parents and keep track of their "accounts". Their children can use their "money" to pay for snack items and entertainment (tv time, tablet time, etc). The kids love it and are preparing for real world skills that they will use when they get older.

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Busy Beads

Does your child need spelling practice? Get some lettered beads and pipe cleaners. Your child can practice spelling words by putting the lettered beads onto the pipe cleaner to make words. I find it best to write down the words first so they know which letters they need to find until they remember how to spell each word. This activity is great for elementary age children and can be done independently.

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I hope some of these ideas help amp up the learning energy while at home. Add a timer or keep score during the learning games to keep them motivated. Anything can be turned into a game, so let the games begin!

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