Favorite Wooden Learning Resources

There are so many beautiful, high quality wooden learning resources available. It can feel overwhelming thinking you need it all. The good news is, you don’t need a single wooden learning resource to homeschool. We homeschooled for 2 years before I purchased our first wooden learning resource. When we started homeschooling I realized my oldest daughter is a kinesthetic learner. She loves any kind of hands on learning. So I researched various resources before I found some that I knew would resonate with her. I have quite a process when choosing a learning resource.

We are a one income family. We’ve always had to budget our homeschooling curriculum and supplies. So I am very mindful about what I purchase. I have two criteria that I follow every time I want something. The first one, can I use it more than once? And the other, can it be used in other ways? If I can say yes to both of those it’s in the running for me to purchase. I also consider if I really need it right now or if I can wait to purchase at a later time. I like to save anything that is fairly expensive for Christmas or birthdays. Another thing I consider is whether or not I already have something that is similar.

I thought I would share some of my favorite wooden learning resources that we use everyday.

Our Favorites for Math

Our most used learning resource is probably the hundred frame board from Treasures From Jennifer. This was the first things I purchased. It met all of my criteria. It is something that can be used more than once in a variety of ways. We mostly use it for math but there are so many other uses for it as well. The board comes with your choice of 100 wooden or felt balls. There are also many different coins available to purchase as well. Numbers, math symbols, fractions, multiplication table, letters, sight words, grammar words, and even blank coins.

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This board can be used for counting, skip counting, patterns, addition & subtraction, learning multiplication facts, practicing inequalities, fractions, and even spelling. I highly recommend this board if you have a limited budget and space because of the endless amount of uses.

Along those same lines as the hundred frame board the ten frame board is perfect for children who are just beginning learning addition and subtraction. I used this a lot with my youngest daughter and it helped her understand so much easier.

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This number line from Bless This Homeschool is also a wonderful resource to use with counting, addition, and subtraction.

This year I purchased this twenty frame board from Chickadees Wooden Toys. I love that there is a spot in the middle for placing flash cards or manipulatives. I plan on giving my daughter a few flash cards each day to work on. She can choose whichever manipulatives to use. We have wooden balls, small and large felt balls, wooden buttons, Grapat pieces, and small wooden cubes kept in jars for easy access.

I also love this Wonders of Numbers board from Bless This Homeschool. This is perfect for addition and subtraction. It comes with wooden number tiles and you can use any type of manipulate with it as well.

This wooden place value board from Treasures from Jennifer is so fun to use when learning place value. My oldest daughter used it when practicing addition and subtraction with two and three digit numbers. I love that the coins that come with the board are reversible and include green numbers for when you need to carry a number.

My oldest daughter began multiplication and division last year. I love this wooden multiplication board from Jack and Link. This is used mostly for memorization in place of a paper multiplication chart.

I love this multiplication fact family board to help her solidify multiplication and division facts. This can be used with wooden or paper numbers, salt, sand, play dough, or manipulatives. I purchased these wooden numbers from Amazon to use when I don’t want to deal with the mess of salt or play dough.

Our Favorites for Language Arts

As you can see most of our resources are for math, but there are some amazing resources for language arts as well. This Parts of Speech board from Bless This Homeschool is genius! My oldest daughter started using it last year to help label parts of speech. The middle part is a dry erase board where you or your child can write a sentence. Then your child labels it with the included wooden labels. There are also dry erase labels you can use and make your own labels.

These word builders from Bless This Homeschool are perfect for beginner spelling.

Another fun resource we’ve been using is this wooden venn diagram from Bless This Homeschool. My oldest daughter used this a lot last year for science. We have the chalk boards but I found the my daughter prefers writing with dry erase markers so I recently got the dry erase boards as well.

Just a Reminder

Just a reminder, you don’t need any of these resources. You can easily and successfully homeschool without them. Find out what works best for your child. Some children might do better with just a pen and paper for math and not even need any manipulatives. Some children may do better listening to concepts being explained. Some children just need to visually see concepts. My daughter does best with hands on resources. She likes to have something in her hands to manipulate. She likes to visually see how the concepts work. So any kind of hands on resources work best for her. I chose these wooden resources because I knew they would last for years. If you do decide your child would do well with hands on resources you don’t have to get everything at once. I’ve been slowly adding to our collection over the years.

I hope this post was helpful in showing you all of the different things you can do with these resources. If you have any questions please let me know!