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I would love to share with you our top 5 favorite homeschool wooden educational resources and how we use them in the classroom!
When I first felt led to homeschool my boys, I immediately began doing lots and lots of research. One thing I found that was a completely new concept to me was the use of wooden educational tools. Not only were not only beautiful to look at, but they seemed to serve a valid purpose. After investing in them, I noticed my boys were drawn to them and we found a way to incorporate them almost daily. These wooden resources are excellent quality and can be used for many, many years to come! In this post I am going to share with why these top 5 products are our favorite, and how we choose to use them.
Side note-Do you NEED them in your homeschool- absolutely not! You can 100% homeschool effectively without a single wooden product. However, we chose to invest in them, and we see the fruit from using them daily!
Therefore without further or due, here are my top 5 favorite homeschool wooden educational tools:
1. Alphabet Tracing Board
The first wooden educational tool we purchased was The Alphabet Tracing Board. It has been most helpful in the toddler/preschool stage! This board is a great hands-on tool that allows your child to practice letter recognition, letter sounds, and even spelling. There are many ways you can use this letter board. For instance, tracing, filling, play dough pressing, and games are ways in which we have used the board. The one I purchased came with a small wooden tracing pencil which was an added bonus! We love this wooden resource in our homeschool!
2. 10 Frame
The 10 Frame wooden board is the next resource I would like to share with you. We use the board for counting practice! This board is a great visual for students to visually see numbers in relation to five and ten. In addition to that, The ten-frame is also a great steppingstone for learning place value in the future. This ten-frame board is handy to pull out and use at any time! The board works best using counters. You can use counters of your choice, but wool balls fit great into the slots of this board, so this is what we prefer to use!
3. CVC Phonemic Board
The CVC Phonemic Board is next on the list! First, I want to address why we use this board, and after that I will explain how we use it! A “CVC” word follows the pattern of “Consonant, Vowel, Consonant.” When first learning letter sounds and in the beginning stages of reading, practicing with “CVC” words allow children to learn to combine individual letter sounds together to create short words. We do “CVC” practice daily. This board has been a go-to for practice!
This board comes with the three slots to manipulate and put letters in. There is an indention at the top, where you can place the word cards of your choice you would like to practice, and then below that there are three indented dots at the bottom for your child to touch as they read each letter sound to make a word. I have found that the using tactile letters to “build” the word, and then touching each dot as my child reads each sound, really helps consolidate the knowledge being learned.
4. Tracing Board (Sand/Salt)
The Tracing Board has proven to be an excellent resource in our daily homeschool. We use this for MANY things. Starting with before my boys could use a pencil, I taught them to use their finger in the salt to trace different things. Here are some different ways in which you can use the board:
– Different Types of Line Tracing
-Finger Tracing Letters/Numbers
-Tracing CVC/Sight Words
-Spelling Tests
Because this tray is hands on, it is very engaging, helps with fine motor skills, and helps mix things up rather than just pencil/paper.
5. Geo Board
The Geo Board is one of my boy’s favorites open-ended learning tool. It is especially helpful for children strengthening their grasp, fine motor, and visual motor skills. I usually give my boys free rein with rubber bands and the board to create anything they like! There are times when I make it more educational and I have them create specific patterns, make certain shapes, letters, etc. If you are wanting something that holds your child’s attention for a long time, without constant parental support- this is your product!
That rounds up our top 5 favorite homeschool wooden educational resources and how we use them in the classroom! I hear what wooden resources you use in your classroom? Thanks for stopping by, I hope this serves you well!
Shop This Post:
- Alphabet Board
- Ten Frame or similar here.
- CVC Board or similar here.
- Tracing Board or similar here.
- Geo Peg Board or similar here.
- Wool Balls
- Chalkboards
- Letter / Number Magnets
- CVC Cards
- Rubber Bands
Interested in more homeschool info? More posts here:
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