Home Learning - Tracing Tools for Children
Now that our little one is home almost non-stop for the seventh month in a row, we’ve started setting up morning mini lessons designed for his current interests and skills. At 4 years old, he’s ready for some semblance of schooling. But due to the ever-rising cost of pre-school in Los Angeles coupled with the COVID-19 rates throughout the city, my husband and I made the tough decision to not send our child to classes for the foreseeable future.
West has been spelling out short words and expressing a more in-depth understanding of numbers (particularly since counting down to his birthday), so we introduced some tracing tools to his daily mix of learning materials.
Our friends at Timberchild (who, years ago, crafted the wooden plates that our kiddo still uses daily), sent him this beautifully made, double-sided tracing board for his recent birthday.
These number boards are made from one solid, smoothly sanded piece of wood. With one side, children can start to recognize and learn numbers 1 through 10, and then progress to 11 through 20 on the flip side. The numbers can be traced with a finger, or by using the wooden stylus provided. Our son likes to invent various ways to count out the numbers, scrounging up crafting supplies, rocks, marbles, and even the annoying ficus seeds from the garden to fit into the numerous, divots — perfectly sized for tiny fingertips — on the board.
I appreciate the minimal design, which allows us to keep the board out without contributing to a feeling of clutter or overcrowding. This is always a consideration for us given the small size of our home, and the lack of a dedicated play space / bedroom for our youngest family member.
DIY Hanging Board Frame for Children's Art & Photos
When West was born, we bought 4 of these clipboard-style frames to use fluidly throughout our space:
Even though the boards/frames are not new to our space, readers still ask about them regularly. They’re a great way for switching up your child’s art, photos, calendar pages, and and prints with ease.
To my knowledge, this particular style is no longer available, so I thought I’d share a quick and super simple visual DIY guide for creating something similar using NO new materials— just repurposed items from around the house.
We used a postcard / photo our videographer sent us, an old bulldog clip, twine from our jar of used wrapping supplies, a flat-head thumb tack, and a small box top from a gift crate that was recently sent to our home. Wine crate lids and clipboards would also work well for this project.
If your child is looking for a way to display their art, these can be strung from doorknobs, wall hooks and S-hooks to be enjoyed and swapped out within moments when desired.
