CHILDREN have a new way to learn about letters and numbers during lockdown.

Christine Purbrick from Haydon Wick is behind the alphabet and number scavenger hunts popping up in north Swindon.

She said: “I’ve been teaching my three-year-old son during the lockdown and trying to get him more interested in phonics and sounding words, and I was just thinking of different ways of doing it.

“I’ve seen all the different trails around Swindon at the moment and I thought 'why not do something in Haydon Wick?'”

The mum-of-one posted on Facebook asking if anyone wanted to get involved by drawing a character or a picture that represents it to stick in their window for children to find when out on their daily exercise.

“For children like my son Matthew, this kind of trail allows them to be able to do a bit of learning as well as getting outside and doing something fun with their families,” said Christine, an HR and payroll functional support analyst for UK SBS.

“To help them be able to recognise those numbers and letters I think it’s very important for children to also have those visuals as well as speaking the sounds, and to make learning fun,” she added.

Christine allocated letters or numbers to people wanting to take part and created a Facebook event for each trail, which includes an activity sheet with street names for children to work through.

“I tried, particularly with the alphabet, to organise it so the letters near to each other in the alphabet, are near to each other geographically,” Christine said.

“It’s nice for us because we only just moved to the area two weeks before lockdown. So it’s actually been quite good for helping us to get to know the area.”

Christine’s original post now has 240 comments and more than 40 people have stuck a number or letter in their windows.

Haydon Wick now hosts the whole alphabet as well as numbers one to 15.

“I’m a bit flabbergasted at the response, really,” said Christine.

“I couldn’t believe how many comments it got. I thought perhaps only one person would want to take part, so yeah I was overwhelmed by it all.

“If anyone wants to add to the numbers, then obviously there’s no limit and I’m very happy to make that grow.

“It’s so nice to see how the community spirit has come out and people’s gratitude towards it being organised makes it worthwhile,” she said.

For more information search for alphabet scavenger hunt on Facebook.