Its that time again where kids are heading back to school although looking a little different this year eventually they will all be back into the classroom setting, and parents will be back to packing lunchboxes, finding missing hats and drink bottles, and the dreaded homework battle!

Learning shouldn’t be a chore for children or adults - it should be fun. There are lots of products out there that are aimed at helping kids with their learning.

As a teacher I like to look for open-ended materials and products to buy for the children to use to help with their learning and understanding of concepts. This allows for multiple uses of one product, so you get more “bang for your buck”!

A staple to have in the home is a 100 chart. This resource grows with your child and can be used to consolidate learning right throughout the primary school years. This wooden number tray is an absolutely brilliant resource, being strong and sturdy and with the added bonus of removable coloured number blocks. Kids who like to be hands on and need something tactile will love this chart. 

It is fantastic to use for all areas of Maths. Addition, subtraction, multiplication and division are all covered in this one tray. The removable number and different coloured blocks are great for identifying patterns in numbers and making repeating patterns. For those children who like to build you can take the blocks out and use them to build 3D shapes and pictures, make 2D and 3D patterns, and sort by colour and number. Take out the blocks and make your own clock, or show fractions using the different colours. 

The times table tray is also a great open-ended resource that can be used to help with multiplication and identifying patterns in numbers. Aimed more for the older student again this resource has coloured removable blocks. This can also be used with or without the 100 chart, bonus being it has the same colour number patterns.

You can use these products with stones, sticks, pebbles, cubes, counters to make numbers, count one-to-one objects, build patterns, and make associations between numeral and amount. The possibilities are endless – so when buying a product to help your kids with their learning think first is it OPEN ENDED?

BigJigs Number tray and BigJigs Times Table tray are available at the kids unite shop and from our online store.