Home learning resources to aid reception children

Following from my post about how E has been getting on at school I started doing a bit of research online to see what hubby and I can do at home to aid his learning.

Here are my findings so far:

Letterland

E’s school use these friendly characters from Letterland to assist with learning phonics and there is a great Parent’s guide that helps you with the sounding of each letter. There is a wealth of information and resources like alphabet/ handwriting songs, handwriting practice and loads more.

Oxford Owl

The school follows the Oxford Reading Tree reading scheme and when looking them up I found the Oxford Owl website. If you sign up you can access over 250 e-books which are aimed at children as young as 3 right through to age 11. Audiobooks are also available, as well as ideas for fun games you can play with your child, interactive games, top tips and even a help section.

Read with Biff, Chip & Kipper – iPad app

I downloaded the Biff, Chip & Kipper app onto our iPad a while back as the school said that reading – whether as hard copies or digital was to be encouraged. I’ve yet to sit down with E and read these yet but I have no doubt he will enjoy them.

Reading Eggs

Online lessons that make learning to read fun. The idea is that your child goes at their own pace through lessons and they earn “golden eggs” as they go through. I signed up to Reading Eggs a few weeks ago when we were offered a 4 week free trial. I like the idea that it is interactive learning and that E can pick and choose which lessons he wants to do. We’ve not had much time to go through this of late (we always seem so busy) so it may well be something I will sign up for properly in the New Year. There are around 120 lessons aimed at 3- 7 year olds who are learning to read and they offer a free trial – its definitely worth checking them out!

Learning resources

Learning Resources is a great website that sell educational toys for children from 2 – 11 years of age. There are toys to aid literacy, numeracy, role play and more. I LOVE the look of the Pretend and Play Post Office set and I think this is something E would really enjoy! I also think the Big Cat Math – Addition & Subtraction looks like something that would really help with E’s maths.

So there you have it, there really is wealth of information on hand for parent’s out there – now I just need to find some more time to put these to good use!

Do you also have a child in Reception? I would love to know of any learning resources you have found useful – leave me a comment