The first day back to school after a happy sunny summer vacation can be daunting for kids. Make sure you have everything they need; use our back-to-school guide for inspiration:

Back-To-School Parent’s Edition

– Keep up the summer learning, especially for younger learners. You don’t want your kids experiencing the ‘summer slide‘ as it is called, also the phenomenon of losing a portion of knowledge during the months of summer vacation. To keep up their skills and knowledge, introduce a portion of learning every day. Keep it simple–have them practice their name, say your phone number, correctly identify shapes and numbers.

Hint: Here’s how you can mix in fun even during summer learning…

– Offer to help. Touch base with the authorities in charge at your child’s school and ask if you can donate:

• • Your time (volunteer to be a part of some school committee)

• • Your money (which can be used for new school equipment)

• Your efforts (in the form of suggestions for new educational products, new suggestions, and more)

Schools will never say no to a helping hand.

– Make your child a goodie bag. Everyone loves a present.Hand over a brand-new item they can show off to friends, and your kid is grateful for life (or at least until the next week, when they think of something else they want). This goodie bag does not have to be extravagant or expensive; you can fill it up with cute new sunglasses, clay dough, new pencils and crayons, glue, even the goodie bag itself can all be potential ‘back-to-school’ gifts for your child.

Image by ALI TOMA from Pixabay

Back-To-School Teacher’s Edition

– ‘Theme’ up your classroom. Welcome your kids to school by decorating the classroom in a particular style–you can pick a place like the circus or the beach, fun movies like the Avengers, and even funny songs or rhymes. Choose one that you know your students will enjoy and watch their faces light up with happiness.

For example: For the theme ‘Jungle Book’, you can place cutouts of plants and trees around the classroom (or actual potted plants, if allowed), green streamers to resemble creepers, pictures of jungle animals around the desks, and random students can be Mowgli, Baloo, and Bagheera. You can even have them sing and dance to songs from the movie.

Image Source: https://bit.ly/2EGfMv4

– Break the ice between kids, again. They were best friends for a whole year, and then came their vacation. Maybe they play together, maybe not. Either way, get your students bonding again by group activities like sitting in a circle and saying what they did in the summer, or making them all special badges. Help them feel connected to each other, and the year will pass smoothly.

– Load their first day back (or even first few days back, if you can work it into the curriculum), with enjoyable activities like painting, drawing, or playing some type of learning games.

*check out our Instagram feed to see how introducing exciting educational games in the classroom magically reduces your students’ first day jitters.

Preparing kids to go back to school can be challenging (for you and them), but with enough preparation, you can make it through with flying colours!

Share your tips and tricks to getting kids ‘back-to-school’ ready; hit the comment section below!

– Sanjana Shukla, Content Writer, Square Panda India

They come every year, without fail. As the weather turns from cool to hot, you lose almost half your body weight in perspiration.

You can heap curses on the weather gods for turning the heat up, you can even dream of taking a leave off work to stay home under the sweet embrace of your fans and ACs. Of course, all these heat-related woes will be nothing compared to your children’s/students’ disappointed faces if you haven’t managed to pack their vacation with as many fun summer activities as possible.

Image by Adina Voicu from Pixabay

We understand and sympathise with your time constraints, which is why we have compiled the following list of summer activities for kids to try out this summer:

Check out our comic strip on how to stay safe in summer before you take on these activities.

Check out all our comics on our Facebook or Instagram.

#1: Pool Time:

A nice refreshing dip in cool water sounds like heaven, doesn’t it? Try out some local swimming pools. Or take your kids on trips to places with pools/lakes. For a cheaper alternative, introduce bubble baths. You can make it more interesting by adding a ‘story’ element to the bath. Teachers, grab a hose! After all, water is still water.

#2: Mango Is King:

Who doesn’t love a sweet, juicy mango? Feed them mangoes (in moderation). Teach them easy, kid-friendly recipes incorporating mangoes, because it is never to early to learn to cook. Parents, you get a kitchen helper, and teachers, you get a parent’s eternal gratitude and devotion.

#3: Hobbies Need Time Too:

Playing with friends, practicing a sport, reading, or even lazing around; give all activities that your kids enjoy enough time. In fact, you can create a specially ‘curated’ list of activities for kids this summer, based on what they enjoy. We also recommend adding a small element of learning into summer fun, because we hate to see children experience the ‘summer slide’.

#4: Screen Time Can Be Healthy Too:

Not all screen time is bad. Choosing to let kids play-learn with educational games like ours, which are based on research and have proven results, can greatly help increase and enhance their knowledge. You can even spend some time finding resources on free streaming sites like YouTube, which is chock-full of educational videos on learning everything from numbers to nursery rhymes.

Stay tuned for more on why we think screen time with Square Panda is educationally beneficial…

Which activities are you leaning towards? Write to us in the comment section below.

– Sanjana Shukla, Content Writer, Square Panda India

When I say the word ‘game’, what image comes to mind?

Is it a video game, complete with players in headsets blasting away at imaginary enemies?

Or do you go more old-school and imagine a rousing game of cricket or football?

What was previously strictly in the ‘fun’ category is now slowly entering the educational sector, with more and more schools globally adopting educational games into their curriculum. Serving as an aid and prop, these educational games explain concepts simple and complicated, reinforce learning, and give the teachers some much needed spare time while in the classroom.

We believe schools in India can benefit from this trend of using educational games as teaching aids too…here’s why:

Fact #1: If You Can’t Beat Them, Find A Way To Productively Join Them

There’s no way to escape ‘screen time’ or the time a person spends in front of the screen (which is 6 hours per day, on an average). Devices have infiltrated every aspect of our lives, and shows no signs of stopping. Introducing educational games will have dual benefits—your students are turning screen time into learning time, and this also serves to increase their digital literacy. Additionally, students will be better equipped for learning when their private lives are filled with similar media.

Fact #2: ‘Funning’ Up The Learning Process

Whether it is adding some new life to your classroom, or just trying to keep the students engaged, educational games can come to your rescue. Long experience has taught us that beginner learners acquire faster when taught through play. Adding an educational game to your existing aids mixes that fresh element of fun to the learning process.

Liked this image? Check out more on our Instagram and Facebook pages.

Fact #3: Fail ‘Safely’

These kinds of educational games rarely have any punishment for incorrect answers, at least not the traditional kind. The are mostly programmed to give out positive feedback even if learners are making mistakes. This feature ultimately boosts students’ confidence by having them ‘fail’ safely. Also, a “Whoops, try again!”, sounds so nice when it is coming from a cuddly little animated character, doesn’t it?

Fact #4: The Reward System Gets An Upgrade

Straying away from the traditional means of rewarding students, educational games give out bonus points, unlock new levels, and more, for well-performing students. This added motivation can enhance stimulation and engagement like little else can.

Fact #5: There Is Safety In This Game

It’s an educational game whose target audience is not allowed to cross the street by themselves; they cannot afford even a whisper that their game is an unsafe environment for kids. Most such games undertake very stringent measures to guarantee a safe and controlled playing space for users. Of course, we recommend taking the game(s) for a test drive before introducing them in your classrooms.

Psst, Square Panda offers a completely safe and ad-free environment for kids as they learn the English language.

Fact #6: Supercharged Learning

Educational games for kids are often an all-in-one kind of buffet, reinforcing many of the essential skills taught in the classroom, like social and emotional skills, fine and gross motor development, and more. Information taken in here is not static and one-dimensional, but constantly changing and interactive.

Fact #7: Instant Feedback

Learners get feedback on correct or incorrect words instantly. Teachers, too, get their students’ progress relayed to them as their charges are playing.

Fact #8: Learning To Learn

Children need to know learning is more than just rote memorization of facts and concepts. With educational games, they have an increased chance to fall in love with learning. These games show children a different way to learn, challenging their brain constantly, using different ways to train them in the subject, increasing their all-round development and problem-solving skills.

Fact #9: What Gap?

Research shows children from upper income households often produce better results than children from lower income households. Schools can do their part to reduce the gap by incorporating an educational game into the curriculum. Each child gets equal playing time, constant repetition and subsequent reinforcement of essential concepts.

Like anything else, there are challenges to using educational games in the classroom—teachers have to know the game before they can teach students to learn with it, there might not be sufficient resources to get this technology into the school, and integrating the game with the existing lessons. Square Panda anticipated this problem and provides teacher resources, along with a lesson plan suggestions, to ensure smooth implementation of its educational games in teaching. You can also browse through our game page, which gives you a glimpse into our amazing array of learning games for toddlers and kids aged 2-8.

So are you ‘game’ to try this new teaching assistant? Share your views with us! Which kind of learning game would you prefer in your classroom?

– Sanjana Shukla, Content Writer, Square Panda India