(3 minute read)

After all that hard work everyone's put in to get through a whole year of learning, summer is the time to really knuckle down and get some homework done? No? Of course not! Kids are tired ( so are adults) and everyone might need a bit of fun and relaxation before the new school year! Our games are fun and educational, so that ticks all the boxes! We’ve gathered our ‘TOP TIPS’ for keeping your child active with Teach Your Monster learnings over the holidays (and get them ready for school at the end of summer). We hear from our Literacy games manager and our Maths game manager, Alex and Leo! 

Teach Your Monster to Read - Alex’s TOP TIPS

1. Play phonics eye-spy! Same as normal eye-spy, but with phonemes instead of letters. A phoneme is a letter-sound, for example, the phoneme /f/ for the grapheme 'ph' as in photograph. Whilst playing, use a pen and paper (or even just your hands), to draw the grapheme that matches the phoneme sound. You and your child could even look for things that use a phoneme they have learnt in Teach Your Monster to Read, and get them to spot it wherever you go. 
2. Make fun phonics songs: Check out these animated phonics songs, which are great for revising and teaching letter-sounds. Catchy and easily adaptable, children will want to sing along and invent their own.

Reading for Fun - Alex’s TOP TIPS

1. Reading for Fun is the perfect portable library of over 70 books in your pocket. I bet you couldn’t fit 70 real books in your carry-on!
2. Kids finding it hard to sleep in the hotel bed? Why not get Reading for Fun to tell them (and you) a bedtime story, you’ll soon be off to the land of nod.
3. Map-reading quest - reading is more than just stories and facts. If you’re visiting a new city, grab a map from the tourist information centre and let your child use their map-reading skills to navigate their way to the park.

Number Skills - Leo’s TOP TIPS

1. Supermarket Counter - Ask your kid to get you a number of something in the fruit and veg aisle - this will help practise their number skills. If they need a challenge, ask them to get 2 more and see if they can count on (1, 2, 3 etc) or add them (1 + 2 = 3).
2. Practice makes perfect - If you know there’s some areas your teacher says your child needs to do a bit more work on, Number Skills’ practice mode can get your kids working on specific topics, numbers or mini games. 
3. Play board games - Research shows playing board games is a great way of getting more confident with numbers. Snakes & Ladders has been proven to be a particularly effective (and fun!) way to get in some number practice.

Adventurous Eating  - Alex’s TOP TIPS

1. Supermarket Dash - Ask your child what fruit or vegetables their monster has been trying in the game. Can they find one in the supermarket? Would they try one? Perhaps even take it home for trying later.
2. Friday Try-Day - getting your kids to try new fruits and vegetables can be the last thing on your list of things to do, especially if they can be a reluctant eater. Carving out just one day of the week for trying something mysterious is a great way to start a new good habit - try to sync it up with the day you usually do your food shopping, so you can grab something fresh. Better still, let your little person pick the new food themselves. 

We hope you have lots of fun trying these over the summer!

Alex Goss and Leo Allen,
Product Managers for Teach Your Monster