Home Learning – How to Mix it Up!

At a time when a lot of families are juggling work and home learning with their children, it can be hard to keep children motivated and engaged. Many schools are now providing online resources and lessons for parents to access remotely, however some children find this difficult to focus on, some children are too young or have learning difficulties which can be a barrier. There’s also the worry of how long children are in front of a screen during these times.

Being creative and using a few tactile resources is a good way to break up the day and to balance on screen learning. The Team at Twoey have developed ‘Twoey Learning’ which is a range of curriculum resources specifically designed to capture a child’s attention and engage them in the activity, which can be a challenge when learning at home.

All resources in the range are closely linked to the National Curriculum and many of them are supplied with notes and activity suggestions, for anyone that needs a little guidance or ideas for how to use them. Here are a few products that are simple to set up, easy to use and affordable too…

Numeracy Bags – Twoey have a wide selection of bags to cover different areas of Maths, including 2D shapes, 3D Shapes, Telling the Time and the tricky subject of Fractions. Using brightly coloured, durable foam sets makes the mathematical concepts visual and tactile giving a very sensory and memorable learning experience. The bags are great for storing the objects in, but also form part of the activity as they give an element of surprise when used to hide an object or label inside. They can transform a child’s enthusiasm for Maths when you aren’t an experienced teacher.

Early Maths – for younger children the Number Rhymes display is a lovely activity to do with pre-schoolers. Counting Rhymes are a good way to bring Maths into singing, and using the fabric objects to count up, count in twos and count down gives an extra dimension to the songs. The large numbers can be attached to the display and children can remove them or add them as you count along with the rhymes.

Science and Nature – Bringing nature inside and taking learning outside is a perfect way to give science context. Looking at flowers and insects and then learning about their parts, what they are called, their lifecycles and food chains are all fascinating facts. As we move into Spring there are more opportunities to be outside and observe nature as it comes to life, and by using a Lifecycle Bag or Plant in a Pocket to talk about the Science in what you see will be reinforcing and make it memorable.

Wall Hanging Displays – Having a home learning routine can be very grounding for some children so to start their learning in the morning using a daily chart, such as the Weather Window or Classroom Calendar, can be a good way to engage them from the outset. These displays come with pictures and labels to observe and record key facts about the day, which make for useful discussion points too. Children will very quickly get the hang of what to do and look forward to updating the display each morning.

And one of our favourite and most versatile resources in the Twoey Learning range is a Feely Bag..! Such a simple yet engaging activity that will instantly capture the attention of most children. It can be used for science, Maths, Literacy, Languages, Spellings or Times Table practice…in fact almost any subject. By putting something inside a bag for a child to feel makes it mysterious and instantly exciting. Putting words or sums in a bag to pick out makes rote learning tactile and sensory. Describing what’s inside the bag is really good for developing communication skills and descriptive language. So many ways to use this drawstring bag!

These are just a few ideas of how you can use resources to bring learning to life at home. Mixing up screen based or more formal learning by using a variety of activities will ultimately keep children engaged for longer, whilst also creating unique family bonding moments too.

Twoey has an extensive range of resources which parents and carers can use to create tactile and memorable learning experiences with their children. Visit www.twoey.co.uk to see the full range of Twoey Learning products available online. Alternatively, please email sales@twoey.co.uk or call 016973 49774 / +44 16973 49774 as we would be delighted to answer any queries you may have.