"The Fun Learning Kip Crew characters Tuka, Soca, Maco and Waaba are designed to inspire your child to take part in learning activities. They are peer learners who themselves are constantly learning, they understand that learning requires work, and that it can be more fun when you play, study and learn together. You can also use the characters in your own narrative when you want to help your child overcome some difficulties or when you want to give an example: Tuka worked hard on the decomposition of the number 6, or Soca is also a but shy but let's think about how we could help him in this situation... and so on. Descriptions of the characters are in the image and under the questions about Tuka, Maco, Soca and Waaba 😁"

"Simple: read the instruction and list of materials and start! This app is divided into four annual programs, starting around the time your child is three years old. You can start any time before your child turns six. We suggest you start, for example, with year four if your child has not yet had their fifth birthday, so do not unnecessarily rush to the next year. The app is actually your app as the parent, you receive the instructions and you guide your child through the Fun Learning home activities. You can also delegate the guiding to another adult, for example a grandparent or tutor, or a family caregiver depending on your own situation. The app takes you through the program in an easy fashion, it is your happy duty to enjoy the time you spend with your child in celebration of childhood and supporting your child to become a person with a positive attitude toward learning."

"This app includes instructions in modules of 20 tasks for you as the guiding adult. This is an app that requires no screen time for the child. The activities include domains like math, language & communication, science, music, arts & crafts and physical exercise. These school subjects are connected with learning life skills such as decision-making, communication and negotiation, responsibility, media literacy, thinking and learning skills, social emotional skills and care of self. The app also includes fun stories to orient your child to the activities - you can read the stories to your child or use the app as an audio book. Every two weeks you receive a parent video on an important topic. After one full year of parenting videos you will earn your own Fun Learning Parent Diploma. Throughout the program you can follow your progress in the analytics section of the app."

"This program supports curricular learning and is designed to work with the adult guiding the child at home without a school curriculum at hand. So rest assured these activities strengthen learning skills while being structured in playful and enjoyable ways. Especially your personal connection with the child, working together on positive learning experiences will support studying the curriculum with a teacher in the school setting."

"If your child is not yet six years old, you should start with year 5. The activities form a continuum and build constructively on the foundation of the previous activities. So do not rush with the program, start with year 5 and enjoy year 6 activities later!"

"The content in the app is designed to be used in the planned order so that you can be sure the progression and story are coherent. However, once you have completed the activities you can go to the archive and repeat any of the tasks that you and your child enjoyed earlier. These chosen activities can be done whenever you wish."

"This app is based on the Fun Learning approach and this means that there is a lot of emphasis on engaging and motivating the child in fun, age appropriate and positive ways. Your role as a supportive adult is the key to success - the objective is to work to help the child to enjoy learning, to develop strong learning skills and adopt a growth mindset that will help your child hold on to a positive attitude toward learning throughout life. This app can be used in support of any pedagogy your child's school follows."

"The program takes you through the activities one-by-one. You cannot skip them but if an activity is really not fun for your child, you can go through it a bit faster although still helping your child to understand what it is about. You can look at the goal of the activity and see if you can modify the task to engage your child. But we do trust that if you show you are enjoying doing the tasks together with them, the child will want to do them with you - most of the time 😀. Maybe you will later want to repeat an activity when your child is more interested in the topic - you can find it again in the archive section of the app."

"You do not need to necessarily have the materials listed, they are just an example of things that help you organize the activity. You can be creative and flexible. Read through the task and work with the materials you have at hand. The listed materials are simple and easy to find. If you have access to more materials, for example in arts and crafts, feel free to elaborate the tasks to include more techniques and choices. Also, when you notice your child has interest in some subject, theme or activity, you can put more emphasis on that particular subject and source additional materials to support their interest."

Go to the Archive when you want to check the goals of a task, see which subject the task is mainly connected to, or when you want to go back to a task that you would like to repeat.

"The analytics section is for you, as your child’s guide, to be able to see at a glance where you are in the progression of the program. You can see how you have been going through tasks that for example strengthen mathematical skills, that practice specific life skills and you see how you are progressing toward your own Fun Learning Parent Diploma. This is your data center and it is not used to pressure your child to go any faster in the program. The essence of this component is strictly to keep you as the adult on top of the succession of the process and to remind you to keep going!"

"The topics cover various questions parents have about supporting their children according to the Fun Learning approach. After going through all the tasks with your child and watching the videos, you will receive your Fun Learning Parent Diploma! The diploma will appear in the diploma section you can find in the menu."

"You should definitely repeat any of the activities that you and the child find fun and motivating. Repetition is very important and we leave it to you to observe your child and offer opportunities to play again depending on what inspires your child. Notice that the tasks in the program are intentionally also repetitive, sometimes they take you back to a previous idea or theme to strengthen the effect and to ensure the foundation is built strong enough for the next steps. Each child is unique and therefore your own observations are important: in this parent program the most reliable prompter is the interest of the child, so whenever the child is interested in repetition we recommend you make some time to follow the child and offer opportunities for repetition. You can find the tasks you have done in the archive section of the app, check the menu and click on Archive."

"You know your child best. This app gives you a buffet of activities that takes you and your child through a balanced program. However, your child might show a particular interest in some topic, and you should follow the interest of the child by giving them more support and inspiration in that subject. This program is designed to work with materials that you would usually have at hand. If your child shows a special interest, for example, in Arts & Crafts, you are more than welcome to elaborate on the tasks by offering more time and suitable materials to make the craft activities more inspirational for them. Just take the task in the app as a starting point and broaden the theme with exciting techniques and materials that take your child further into arts. The same goes for all the subjects, do not limit the child when they show interest!"

"Play and exploration are at the heart of the Fun Learning approach. The tasks in this program are designed to be a starting point for free play. We recommend you reserve plenty of time daily for your child to play. Ideally the sessions you enjoy with the child will spark ideas for their own imagination and play - let the child continue to explore the themes on their own and support them by - allowing time for free play - offering materials and space for play - actively inviting the child to play - supporting play by being positively curious - respecting play as important and being careful not to interrupt unnecessarily. The tasks in the app are designed to be "played" through. They are playful, active, age-appropriate and allow participation. Play is a natural way for a child to learn. The Fun Learning approach is not alone to prescribe play to all children. The American Academy of Pediatrics states quite clearly that "-- the lifelong success of children is based on their ability to be creative and to apply the lessons learned from playing." Source: https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/129/1/e204/31545/The-Importance-of-Play-in-Promoting-Healthy-Child"

"This program nudges you in the direction of introducing age-appropriate tasks to your child that will support their development. These skills are universal and relate to any local curriculum your school system follows. The life skills that are connected to the tasks are from the Finnish national curriculum for kindergarten. They are: - Thinking and learning - Cultural competence, interaction and expression - Self-care and everyday skills - Multi-literacy - Participation, influence and a sustainable lifestyle - Information and communication technology skills Thinking and learning - Evolve through interaction, new creation and critical thinking. - Confidence in one’s own skills, self-confidence, development of memory and imagination, games, problem solving, research assignments, the joy of realization, versatile movement, and fine-motor exercises. Cultural competence, interaction and expression - Interaction, ability to express oneself, ability to listen, ability to reflect, building positive relationships, constructive problem solving, interacting with different people, practicing skills, parties and games and collaborative activities, good manners, getting to know the environment and its diversity, understanding family traditions, development of language awareness. Self-care and everyday skills - Health and safety skills, individual well-being, sustainable lifestyle, positive attitude towards the future, caring for one’s own belongings and one’s environment, the rhythm of everyday life, the importance of eating, rest and mental well-being, varied exercise, considering together and self-regulation, respect and protection of one’s own and another’s body, responsible activity in nature and local transport, testing technological solutions, and training and safe use of equipment and tools. Multi-literacy - Interpretation and production of different kinds of messages, thinking and communication skills, ability to acquire knowledge in different environments and situations, knowledge through verbal, pictorial, numerical or other symbol systems, different texts can be in different formats, producing different messages in different environments, literacy, writing, reading, numerical literacy, media literacy. Information and communication technology skills - To promote skills, familiarize oneself with tools, applications and games, support interaction skills, learning skills, literacy, the opportunity to experiment and produce content, promote creative thinking and collaboration skills, learn about programming principles, create understanding of digital application development, strengthen logical thinking. Participation, influence and a sustainable lifestyle - Being heard and involved in matters that affect one’s life, participation and influence skills and adopting a sustainable lifestyle, appreciating encounters and appreciation of children’s thoughts, encouraging help and asking for help, children are entitled to adult help and protection, caring for nature, responsible activities, responsible choices and a sustainable lifestyle. Source: Finnish National Agency for Education"

"Your child will definitely show more interest in some of the activities over the others. One of the objectives of this program is for you to have a chance to observe your child interacting with different subjects and to recognize their interests. You can support their enthusiasm by going back to activities that they enjoy. You can find the previous tasks in the archive section of the app. You can also help your child find a hobby that is connected to their greater interests and help them find more information online. However, we recommend you go through all the tasks to offer the child a well-rounded experience with different skills developing through the activities. Your positive interaction with the child will help the child arouse an interest in also the topics that do not immediately hit home with them. We know that for a person to get into a flow, we need to make sure the task is not too difficult nor too easy - we trust you as the parent to help modify the tasks so that they are just right for your child. Of course that is much asked, you cannot always succeed in creating an ideal session, so don't be too hard on yourself, you are doing your best and that is enough! Do not push or pressure the child to complete a task in a particular way. Keep the process fun and light - always allow for the child to play around with the theme also after the session. Look out for creative solutions. The program is designed to ignite a love for learning and that will happen only if the dialogue between you is amicable and supportive."

"We recommend you repeat any tasks that are fun for your child and that they want to work on more. So please make room for any repetitions your child asks for. Some activities are repeated in a new context or after certain other activities to bring out new angles to the exercise. Some are repeated just for the sake of practice - usually they do then include more items, a longer timeframe or more intrinsic fine-motor-skill development. If repetition is totally boring for your child, we recommend you try to introduce a variation of the task or look at the goal to see if you can try another activity with the same purpose."

"If your child has a friend or a sibling of around the same age, you can guide them to do the tasks as a pair. Your responsibility will be to see that they get individual attention while you also have the chance to guide them in cooperation skills, which is a good thing to practice. Guiding a larger group takes more experience as a guide - but if you are a "pro" you can definitely coach a bigger group of kids as well. Remember that the instructions are written for one adult and one child so you might have to modify a bit to cater for your small group of children. Mixed-age pedagogy is at the core of Fun Learning and we gladly promote kids working in groups of different-age participants - this gives the little ones the opportunity to learn from the older kids and the bigger children get to guide and model for the younger ones. This leads to great practice of social skills and collaboration. However, small-group-pedagogy does require more from the supervising adult, so definitely not a piece of cake, but you are free to try!"

"Well, yes! This is precisely for you, as a parent. A parent is not their child's teacher if you are not home-schooling your child. This app brings activities to you that are tried and tested and they are delivered in a format that embraces the interaction between you and your child. This is not a game, it is not school, it is not a curriculum. This is a collection of activities that support the development of your child and offer inspiration for free play and suitable childhood practices. Children need to be allowed to be children and what they need from you is positive support and guidance on how to safely move about in their environment. What they need is to feel loved and respected for who they are. What they need is a positive approach to growing. developing and learning. The Fun Learning Parent app is specifically designed not to be the child's app, but instead your instructor in how to create fun and engaging off-screen activities for your child to enjoy with you. This app helps you become the Hero Parent your child needs you to be. The recipe is simple: play, read and play music with the child every day. Leave time for free play, in fact, encourage play by setting up inspiring ideas and materials to wonder about and create with. Show your love and appreciation to your child and show that you respect childhood, not only as preparation for life but as the most important time in life that should be enjoyed."

"Tuka is as brave and strong as a superhero. She is a natural leader and she has trained skills that will make her the favorite in all physical competitions. She is energetic, extroverted and spontaneous – sometimes even impulsive. Tuka loves action and adventure. Sometimes Tuka seems to be a little bit black-and-white and finds it difficult to take criticism. Her superpowers are strength, speed and fast reflexes. Tuka’s motto: If I really want something, I can do it!"

"Maco is a creative technological mastermind who enjoys inventing new things. He designs and builds all kinds of contraptions and machines to solve problems. Maco is witty, productive, disciplined, honest and genuine. He’s often concerned about the unresolved problems that he encounters. He can sometimes be self-righteous, critical, inflexible and easily irritable. His superpowers are creativity and strategic thinking. Maco’s motto: If you can imagine it, I can make it!"

"Waaba is a caring, nurturing and fairy-like creature. She is highly intuitive and sensitive, and radiates joy. Waaba always wants to keep the peace, so she’s a natural conflict resolver. She can often surprise others with her unusual and truly strange ideas. Waaba is very positive, but can also be forgetful and a daydreamer. She finds it difficult to cope with pressure. Her main superpowers are flying, the ability to become invisible, telepathy and telekinesis. Waaba’s motto: Everything will be fine as long as we’re all friendly!"

"Soca is everyone’s friend. He can also talk to flowers and animals. He is extremely shy and often appears clumsy. Soca easily gets anxious and is constantly alert for any real or perceived danger. With the support of his friends, Soca can transform himself into a courageous team player. His people can speak the languages of flowers and animals, and can sustainably harness the energy of nature. Hiding under Soca’s shyness is a funny and playful side that may sometimes get him into trouble. Soca’s special strengths are his ability to create mini hurricanes and to disappear underground. His senses are extremely sharp and he can transform, just like a chameleon. Soca’s motto: Together everything's better!"

"Prepare for an activity by checking out the task instruction. You can find your next task instruction by clicking on the bottom left icon of the app. After completing a task, you can always find it again in the Archive. Check there whenever you want to repeat a task. Before each set of 20 new tasks there is a fun story about the Kip Crew characters doing similar tasks. You can read the story out loud to your child or listen to the audio reader. The story illustration can be found by clicking on the Fun Academy logo in the upper left corner."

"The tasks in the app are delivered one-by-one in a specific order to support the progression of the development of skills. In some of the tasks we recommend you to go outside or do the task indoors. We understand that the circumstances might not allow our suggested environment so feel free to set up the activity wherever it makes sense in your context. Also, some of the tasks suggest certain materials that you might not have at hand, so feel free to replace them with something similar. Reading the goals of the activity will help you modify your own variation of the task. It is not terrible if you save one task every now and then to be completed at a later time when the circumstances are more supportive 😀. "

"The story aims to get you and your child ready for the action. Tasks are done by the story characters to inspire the children and to give the tasks a fun context. The story is also about helping you to relate the activities to any stories your child is interested in and to support the extensions of these activities in the play of your child. The illustrated pedagogical stories are also a vehicle for social emotional skills - they discuss feelings, manners, empathy and how we all are different and unique while also the same in many ways. The stories give material for your discussion with the child on topics like bullying, feeling left out, friendship, sorrow and much more. So we definitely recommend using them for both fun and as a starting point for valuable discussions."