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STEM ToysHow to Make Screen-Free Learning Fun Again!
Children are not experiencing the world firsthand, but rather seeing it through a screen. It’s unfortunate. We can change it by making learning a fun and active experience. That’s where the idea of screen-free learning steps in.
Screen-free learning aims to make learning fun, activity-based, and absolutely engaging. It tries:
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To engage most of your child’s senses
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Activates the thinking process
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Helps them build different skill sets — all via play.
Although the idea sounds great, there’s a 0.1% chance your children may show initial resistance to it. This blog is aimed at solving this concern. Skillmatics is going to explore five ways to make screen-free learning more exciting. Additionally, Skillmatics will share suggestions for suitable screen-free educational toys to make your search for such toys a little easier.
PS: There’s a free printable for you inside!
What Makes Screen-Free Learning the Need of the Hour
The UK Parliament's Education Committee published its report “Screen time: impacts on education and wellbeing” in May 2024. The report highlighted three important learnings and observations:
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Screen use started as early as 6 months of age
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Screen time between 2020 and 2022 rose by 52%
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Nearly 25% of young children were using smartphones in a way that was consistent with behavioural addiction.
In fact, a very recent BBC news article described preschoolers' screen time at a ‘crisis point.’ Screens are impacting our children’s ability to communicate, form friendships, and pay attention. It is hampering their growth and development.
Keeping these points in mind, Skillmatics developed these free printables. These printables teach your children about specific topics and engage them in hands-on activities for a lifelong learning experience. The best part about these printables is that there are multiple activities which can be done with just one print, making them a cost-effective, highly engaging learning tool.
Animal Cards Printable
Skillmatics’ Animal Cards printable is a good way to make screen-free learning more exciting.
Download Printable
What will you need?
A print of this PDF cut into cards. That’s all. It can be played in 3 ways:
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Animal charades
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Safari sorting
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Animal matching
For Animal charades, one player will draw a card from the pile of cards and place it on their forehead without taking a look at it. Other players will describe the animal on the card. If the one holding the card guesses it correctly within a minute, they get to keep the card with them.
Safari sorting is a simple activity that requires you to keep a timer on and ask your child to sort the animals into three categories: wild, farm, and underwater.
Animal Matching is a memory card game. You will need two sets of cards, jumbled and placed upside down. Let your child turn over two tiles at a time and use their memory to match the tiles correctly.
Easy and engaging, isn’t it?
Next, let’s understand the different ways you can keep your screen-free learning sessions engaging for your children.
5 Ways to Make Screen-Free Learning More Exciting
#1 - Consider Your Child’s Interests
There are 100 things worthy of being taught to your child. From basic household chores, craft skills, and creative writing to space, animals, and the capitals of different countries, the options are vast. However, not every topic will interest your child. When the topic does not interest them, they are more likely to reject the idea of learning altogether.
So, one of the ways to ensure that screen-free learning excites them is to keep the topics interesting and explore different angles of the same topic. The best way to find out is to have an honest conversation about it with your children.
#2 - Gamify Learning
Play and learning go hand-in-hand. There is so much that children pick up naturally when they are playing with their friends and siblings. For instance, how to take turns, think strategically, how to ask the right questions, and how to be considerate of each other.
Of course, when it comes to screen-free learning, you may be looking at teaching them something concrete, like space or different types of animals. Introduce these concepts using a puzzle. These will not only help them learn about the said topic but also support the development of decision-making, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills.
#3 - Let Them Teach You
We teach our children all the time, and this journey begins when they are infants. When do they get a chance to teach us? When we reverse the roles, we give our children the chance to teach us what they already know. It helps them build confidence in expressing their thoughts they have. What’s more? It gives you insight into what else you need to expose them to.
How do you go about it? Get them a book on a topic you want to explore together. Let them read it, ask as many questions as they want, and clear their doubts, chapter by chapter. After every chapter, sit with them and tell them, “Okay! So you are my teacher for the day. Will you explain to me [XYZ]?”
Ask them some questions to test their knowledge. Make a note of where they stumbled. Towards the end or in the next session, address those points.
#4 - Make It a Group Learning Experience
The experience of learning amplifies with a group of friends. There’s peer learning, a healthy competition, and a subtle desire to know the most of all. Another benefit of learning in groups is the chance to explore a variety of topics.
The same group of friends can meet every weekend to do this. They can each pick a topic that excites them, and these can be used as themes for the weekend meets. This way, your child gets to learn about topics beyond their interest and broaden their horizons.
#5 - Make It Experiential
There’s a reason why children are taken to planetariums, zoos, and nature walks. When they see it, they remember it better because they have experienced it. This technique works extremely well with scientific concepts. For instance, volcanic eruptions, the flow of electricity, density, magnetic force, and plant respiration.
You can arrange simple DIY experiments to perform with your children and explain to them the science behind them. It allows for initial guesswork followed by scientific understanding.
Read our blog, 10 Exciting Science Experiments for Kids During British Science Week – Skillmatics UK, for some experimental inspiration.
Another way to explore experiential learning is via field trips. You can take them to a nursery if you want to teach them about different plants, a zoo if the topic is animals, or to the market if you are teaching them about vegetables and fruits. Some of the other spaces you can explore are:
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Supermarkets
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Clothing stores
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Parks
Screen-Free Games That Are Loved by 15 Million+ Families Globally
We have a few more suggestions for you. These games are loved by families globally and keep your kids on their toes. These can be played in duos as well as in groups, ideal for your game time!
Here’s a quick look at them.
Skillmatics’ Step-by-Step Puzzle
Designed for progressive learning, this puzzle set introduces children to different levels of complexity. They can begin by sorting the puzzle pieces by colour and then progress to 3-piece, 4-piece, and 5-piece puzzles. There are three amazing variants in this game. As young children master their puzzling skills, they'll learn about animals and build confidence along the way.
Skillmatics’ Piece & Play
Piece & Play is a giant floor puzzle and a game, all in one! Once your child builds the floor puzzle, they can play two fun search and find games! First, match the picture on the game tiles to the puzzle, and for more advanced play, read the clues so your little one can find the matching picture! The good part? There are four exciting variants to choose from.
Skillmatics’ Guess in 10
Pick up guide tiles, ask questions and get clues to guess the object on the game card. Is it light or heavy? What is the object used for? Is it big or small? It is an exciting 2-6 player game that requires you to think smart and ask smarter questions. Best part? It comes in 14 variants! Check them all out and pick what interests your child.
Skillmatics’ Rapid Rumble
Rapid Rumble is the fastest, funniest, and most clever category game. Think fast and shout answers that match the category while using up as many letter cards as possible. The first player to get rid of all their letter cards wins. There are 120 category cards. So no two rounds are going to be the same. The challenge keeps increasing, and so does screen-free fun learning.
Skillmatics’ Scout It Out
Filled with amazing world countries facts, it’s the ultimate trivia board game for 7+ and up. Explore interesting facts about different countries as you scout them out on the world map using clues like flags, currencies and more. Just roll the die, use the clues provided, and race to be the first player to guess five countries correctly to win the game.
Conclusion
Screen-free learning is best done when the topic matches your child’s interest and keeps them engaged. They shouldn’t feel obligated or pressured to participate. What you can do is give them options on how they would prefer to explore a certain topic. Would they like to do it via a game, or would they like to experience it? This will make the process easier and enhance the screen-free fun learning experience.
Happy fun learning!
Links:
10 Exciting Science Experiments for Kids During British Science Week – Skillmatics UK