5 Ways to Make Learning Fun At Home

We want kids to enjoy and be excited about learning. Here are some tips from some of our favorite parent writers on how to make learning fun at home.

Choose one to focus on this week during your activities. Write it on a post-it note and put it somewhere visible. Take note at the end of the week on how your child’s attitudes about learning changed or stayed positive!

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5 Ways to Make Learning Fun At Home

Doing homework after school can easily become monotonous and boring.  Learning with little ones doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, I truly believe that kids can and should have fun learning.

If you find yourself having more struggles than fun, try one of these tips and see if you can re-ignite the enthusiasm for learning.

1. PROVIDE HANDS-ON LEARNING ACTIVITIES

“If you focus on creative, hands-on activities that appeal to your child’s interests, learning will always be fun!”

Jennifer of Edventures with Kids, a blog about kids activities and fun ways to travel! Explore science this week in a fun way with her creative, easy, and engaging activities. 

We like LEGOs and K’nex for fun, hands-on engineering and math lessons and could build for hours. During these building times, we incorporate many different learning topics from math and measurements to reading by creating home-made books of our creations.

2. LET YOUR CHILD LEAD THE PLAY AND LEARNING

“I think the most important aspect of having fun when learning is that it is child-led. Focus on those activities and topics that your children are interested in at the moment. When my daughter became obsessed with lemurs we took out books, watched videos, learned where Madagascar was, looked up the weather, found out what they ate, etc. It’s always more fun when it is child-driven.” 

– Becky of Kid World Citizen, a  blog with activities that will help kids think global. Here is a fun learning activity that connects your child’s favorite animal with global learning.

My daughter likes to learn about butterflies. She was curious about their life cycles and the genetic differences between species. We bought her Encyclopedia of Butterflies and Moths and Insect Lore Live Butterfly Garden so she could raise her own set of butterflies.

We also invested in a year pass to our local butterfly museum and participated in a citizen scientist project for monarch butterflies. It was one of our favorite science memories of the year

3. BE COLORFUL

“I usually make it as colorful as possible. And if it’s something exciting, like this walking water experiment, it will instantly grab the attention of everybody (even adults)!”

– Damjana of AppleGreen Cottage, a blog about kids and crafting. Connect with her on Twitter too!

We like using  Watercolors and our big parachute as a way to bring more color to our playful learning at home. (HINT when you are home by yourself, tuck a handle of the parachute under the sofa so you can raise and lower it on your own! They always want to crawl under and it is soooo hard to make it work with just one person.)

4. ENJOY LEARNING AND PLAY YOURSELF!

“When you enjoy educational play as much as the kids do, magical things happen. Showing them that learning is fun creates a solid foundation for lifelong learning.”

– Sadie of Slap Dash Mom, a blog with a little bit of parenting, ranting, and baking!  Read her article Learn and Play with Play Dough for a play dough recipe and activity ideas.

I have my own adult coloring books and sit down with the kids and color many times. These activities are great to do in-between events or right after school when everyone needs a moment to re-connect. I also get dressed up during pretend play and zoom the wooden trains around the tracks too.

5. MAKE LEARNING GAMES FOR YOUR CHILD

“While practicing sight words with your child at home will make a big difference, it should also be a fun experience!” Here are 20 fun games and activities to practice learning sight words.

– Jennifer of The Jenny Evolution a blog about parenting, recipes, and blogging.

Here at the Educators’ Spin On It, we totally agree with this tip, in fact, we have written an entire book about it with Page Street Press, distributed by Macmillan publishing 100 Fun & Easy Learning Games for Kids.

Order your copy today for over 100 fun and easy learning game ideas!

Learning at Home Resources

• Preschool Daily Schedules for at Home
• Tips for Working from Home with Kids
• The Best Sidewalk Chalk Activities for Kids
• Helping Your Child with Changes Resulting from COVID-19
• The Ultimate List of Preschool Activities for Home

Grab your copy of Everyday Preschool:

Simple educational activities for busy families who never planned on homeschooling